| The Australian
IN the short time she has before making a poll date, Australia's 27th PM will try to show she is as book-smart and toils as hard as Kevin Rudd.
That she has humour and heart beyond the disciplined monotony of staying on message; that listening is a strength and compromise is good for the soul.
What no one could have missed over 24 hours of tumult in Canberra is that Julia Gillard is as ruthless as anyone who has come through the discreet side entrance at Yarralumla for an appointment with the Governor-General.
Ultimately, Gillard's steel and charm, beneath some obvious nervousness, combined in a potent cold fusion to win over her colleagues.
But in the tactile world of people politics, where a smile, intuition and a firm handshake are the assets of authentics and peacemakers, Gillard will be hoping to prove she's in a class of her own.
"Can I say to the Australian people there will be some days I delight you; there may be some days I disappoint you," she said. "On every day, I will be working my absolute hardest for you."
There was no time for customary champagne at Government House after Gillard took the oath of office yesterday, just a sip of water for a composed new leader and a mad dash back to work to face her political foes.
"She was looking radiant," said an official who shook Gillard's hand after the partyroom triumph. "The Prime Minister was at ease, her warmth, grace and humility in abundance," said another involved in the formalities.
In the heartland or the boardroom, she is a listener, but not a soft touch. Idealistic, to be sure, but
as her intimates now say, the former student firebrand has slipped into mature-age pragmatism.
"It's the ends, not the means, that's important to Julia," says one confidante.
To get her party back in a winning position, the Prime Minister must quickly find common ground with the miners, provide succour to those worried about the threat to "sanctuary" from asylum-seekers and guide believers and doubters alike to a sensible path to reducing carbon emissions.
Gillard Labor will be utilitarian: work, consult, explain and then work some more. It will be old-school politics, spare in language, austere in appearance but with a touch of class-based mongrel.
When you hear the Prime Minister speak, and for a time there will be a torrent of words and only a few signal actions, terms such as fairness, opportunity and equity will remind us where she comes from: Laborland, rather than Adelaide.
When she talks about productivity, the market and reform, she'll be trying to sound as if she knows where she is going.
Of course, there are gaps in her life experience and policy expertise. She can be tutored in economics and foreign policy. But even in modern Australia, sadly, there will be some who will never forgive her life choices.
In her first moments as leader, she plopped herself in the common-sense centre of national life. As if feeling the need to reintroduce herself to the electorate, she laid out her lifelong values: hard work, respect, community service. In a world of spin and slogans, it's easy to forget that this is how Gillard has lived her life.
"I believe in a government that rewards those who work the hardest, not those who complain the loudest," she told reporters. "The people who play by the rules, set their alarms early, get their kids off to school, stand by their neighbours and love their country."
It could be John Howard speaking to the aspirationals, or his spiritual godson Tony Abbott campaigning on the back of a ute with a rum and coke. It's also exactly what the focus groups and political consultants have been telling Labor is the sensible middle: the ordinary folk who just want problems solved, better services, want capital "G" government out of their way and to really believe that things will be better for their kids.
We also heard what Gillard's leadership goals will be. Again, it is no surprise to those who have seen her at close quarters: "Leadership is about the authority that grows from mutual respect shared by colleagues, from teamwork and from hard work, teamwork and spirit."
It was the move away from team play, common courtesy and consultation that killed Rudd's leadership - poisoning his relations with the cabinet and getting him bogged in a miasma of detail.
Gillard will pursue the model of successful leaders such as Labor's Bob Hawke, outsized ego aside. It's exactly the sort of behaviour Gillard has already exhibited to trade unions, employer groups, teachers, academics and businesses in reaching compromises.
Witness her success in crafting the post-Work Choices industrial world or in her push to improve transparency about schools. It's my way - and your way, as well.
This is what we expect of leaders. If Gillard continues in this vein, to intuitively understand the mood in the room, the interests of competing parties, she has a chance to crack the impasse with the miners on Labor's proposed resource tax.
"Australians are entitled to a fairer share of our inheritance, the mineral wealth that lies in our grounds . . . but to reach a consensus, we need to do more than consult. We need to negotiate."
This in itself was more credible from Gillard than if Rudd had tried to eke out a deal to save himself.
"And we must end this uncertainty, which is not good for this nation. That is why today I am throwing open the government's door to the mining industry and I ask that in return, the mining industry throws open its mind."
Such leadership will bring her party, and possibly the people, in strongly behind her as she contemplates the coming election campaign. Perhaps there'll be another chance to share a glass of champagne with Quentin Bryce.
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