AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
IN what she described as ‘‘the very final moments’’ of her three years and three days as Australia’s 27th prime minister, Julia Gillard drafted a letter to Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.
The letter, published with Ms Gillard’s approval, was in response to a letter Ms McCarthy had sent to Ms Gillard in May, after learning about her tears in parliament over the DisabilityCare legislation.
Ms Gillard describes Ms McCarthy as ‘‘a truly remarkable person’’, a description that all of us at the Herald – and all of the people she has helped over the years – would endorse.
‘‘Thanks in large measure to your persistence and courage, the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry and the federal Royal Commission will bring truth and healing to the victims of horrendous abuse and betrayal,’’ Ms Gillard wrote.
Ms Gillard announced the Royal Commission in November last year, days after Premier Barry O’Farrell announced a more limited inquiry into events in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese of the Catholic Church.
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