history is written now as if it was inevitable, but going in the independent from tasmania i have never met. anything i knew about him as a person in our intelligence community had objected to the way in which the howard government has used intelligence to justify us engaging in the iraqi war. a familiar story. and then they became very good friends and actually came to the launch of my book and australia. i did not no them well. i dealt with them once over a student income support issue, and that was really at.

with all of the weight in the moment it was extensive studying of these people what i can get to know about them their voting record what i could get to know about how they saw the world and find connection points which would make it viable. over 17 long days i managed to do that. i describe this in the book. it was a lonely time. i had great staff supporting me. either i could or could not do it.

there was not a whole lot that even the best of my ministerial colleagues. do. so i recount bringing one of my good colleagues about something i wanted to check. it was like 1030 in the morning. i said, what are you doing. she said i'm roasting spices. she was taking her energy out by making the world's most complex meals from scratch. i don't even no how you do that. remembers what it was like. this sense of waiting waiting, waiting working, working, working. once everyone said yes there

was actually this growing sense of common endeavor which meant that people come together in difficult days. we then had the reverse of problems for most australian governments the numbers in the house of representatives they get to the senate and do not. we had the reverse. once we could get the numbers in the house of representatives basically it meant we could get it through. it turned out with all of this to be a very productive parliament and there are

days when i get a bit of a rise smile and think to myself, we got bills through in record time. prime minister minister has been fond of talking about budget emergencies and the ability to get budget legislation through is a bit of a problem and it we will be interesting to see when the focus goes back to that problem. >> i just want to say that the labor party is full of literate people. now i am thinking there is a book called roasting spices, a sharp and take the

view of politics. politics. i want to open it up to the politics. i will combine to questions. the book is brilliantly organized for political junkies. so they can read the first 130 pages. there is in that beginning a chapter called the enemy within. it is about what was happening inside the labor party. the media in general. the setup is a bit different than ours.

could government does not work at the same speed as the media. no journalist will be happy with the day the prime minister quietly and methodically reads thinks deeply, and makes decisions. for those of us are watching your labor party and especially those of us who have a sympathy for the centerleft, it was really a what are you people doing over there. first, you throw him out as leader. you throw kevin out as leader. kevin throws you out as leader. then there is an election you lose. so if you you could talk about the media

and what is it with your party. >> two very simple questions. thank you. [laughter] >> then we we will have a softball from the audience. [laughter] >> i think it is a set of common problems. we have an extra problem. because we are a limited population enables the development of alternate media. whereas here because the market is bigger, deeper, more people more money in circulation that you are ending up with more diversity but the thing that is common is in this media age i compare i

compare it to the advent of all-you-can-eat restaurants. you go a bit mad. you just stuff as much food as you humanly can. i think we are at that stage with media. so much coming at us so quickly that the journalists generating it many are regretful they cannot spend more time on generating bits and pieces. it is fanning out national conversations. devoid of context.

no looking forward. >> otherwise it is perfect. >> otherwise it is perfect. i i talk about the experience of launching a major policies midmorning which required thought and analysis and heading journalists bringing my office by midday. journalists now take to interview journalists. and then i hope that this is a transition a transition time. because technology enables this information we we will get used to it and get used

to a newer age. better quality and more customized. a deeper dive into issues that you care about. it has been interesting having watched president obama's mastery of social media that he has had the same problem we have. on what is wrong with our political party, i feel like i should be deferring. if you were trying to draw across all of the events with different elements and personalities, and i speak about my sense of regret

but if you want to draw across all of it our political party is still trying to get some balance between how much it is a leaders party and much of the identity is defined by the leader and how much of its quest for popularity is correlated with the leaders acceptability. a leader and a sense of purpose that brings together the many elements that go to make up the labor party. over time and to the cost of some very good leaders we are looking for that quest for popularity rather than purpose and genuine ability

which has been what has chartered so much of that political fortune. >> the book has a fascinating account. over on the right. that is not a political description. my right, your left. >> good to see you again. welcome to washington. the asia-pacific region. a very straightforward question, how do you think we are doing with policy

looking at it now? >> okay. okay. the pivot the balance did happen on my watch. i do need to pay a tribute to former prime minister rudd who certainly put to the us clearly the need for the us to join the east asia summit. and the joining of the east asia summit was an element of what became the pivot a lot of image and flesh when pres. president obama came to australia, spoke to our parliament talked about the engagement in the region and at the same time secretary clinton was standing on an aircraft carrier just off the philippines.

an an american president is here speaking about the us and its future and the us is a formidable nation. and and the image of a formidable aircraft carrier. they are bloody big things. [laughter] they can do a whole lot of stuff. [laughter] so that, i think, not obviously us him a australia of australia with our long-standing alliance with the us, but if you were a nation in the region calculating a future that was an important moment. an important moment when president obama could not come to opec and the east asia summit because he was tied down in washington with

the debt default problem. if you are one of those nations thinking us china, where we will it be in five to ten years time, the problem with that is people do not doubt the word of the us. it seems it seems to be deeply engaged in the region mumble when they look at washington they get? send their mind about the capability to see it through , and that is not a good place to be. there is a need to deeply -- it is not like it is gone but the visibility needs to be bolstered in the years to come. >> the former prime minister did not tell us what hillary clinton was wearing on the aircraft. let's take these three women

right here in the back right here, and then over here. why don't we take three at once. >> i would like to say hello thank you for speaking prime minister. the first question is on gender. i would like to know basically how you mentally dealt with the misogyny and chauvinism on a daily basis both from those on the opposite side of the bench and those in the media. secondly education based on the current problems with the current governments looking to not the

university charges so that universities can set there own prices on degrees. that scares the hell out of me. the social gap could widen because of students who do not have access. it is just going to get worse. what is your view on that? ..

you experienced most appalling appalling and vulgar sexism in the nation's highest office. obviously before you were in politics you had a different career and i just wondered if you had any comments on how sexism manifested in the law firm you worked in, in a more regular workplace and were you surprised by the changes you observed when you became prime minister? thanks. >> thank you so much. and there was a hand here. please. and then one more round. and then i want tom to ask the last question. >> good morning. thank you so much for being here. my question builds off of the two just asked. but first of all i'd like to tack the opportunity to personally thank you so much for the grace and humility you

displayed as prime minister, as a young professional looking to enter the field of foreign policy and international affairs, i certainly look to you as role model being a young female professional, looking to enter what is typically been a mill-dominated field. so as a young professional i'm curious to know where the challenges you experienced early on in your career and how you overcame those challenges. >> thanks. they're all very good questiones. i'll try to do my best to answer them. on the sort of sexism in different contexts, in politics law firms, my early days in the labor party, i think a difference really is the degree of division you encounter as prime minister in politics and how white-hot the spotlight is. in the law firm where i worked

slider and gordon it could be a bretty boysy, rowdy kind of place. that was part of the imagery. it was an ashamedly -- had a boise kind -- boysy kind of outfit and because the divisions in the partnership the firm generally weren't very hot they might have slightly different views about things but over the time i was in the partnership, in meetings there was great degree of consensus across the firm a great degree of consensus about what we were trying to do. you didn't quite see it the way i saw it as prime minister, and you didn't have this public spotlight on it, either. i think the difference really is when i became prime minister i deliberately thought i wanted to try and shine a spotlight myself on being the first woman it's so obvious i am.

i don't need to wander around going, did you know i was the first... and i thought that any positive reaction to that any negative reaction to that, would be at its greatest immediately after becoming prime minister, and it would abate, and then i just be judged on being prime minister. what i actually experienced and what is i think different from the law firm and different from my early days in the labor party, is that when it got hard and divided sexism became the convenient instrument of criticism. so instead of saying she did that badly or she is wrong about this, it was framed as a sort of sexist attack and that element of politics i think is the one that people sort of latched on to, for good or ill and it's

that level of politics i tried to deal with in the book in terms of dealing with it i talk about this in the book and actually hope -- i'm no kind of lifestyle guru. i haven't tried to write a self-help -- i wouldn't be in good at that. but i have tried to talk about resilience and what you can do to work resellens up, and i -- resilience up, and i think resilience is a muscle that gets stronger as you use it, and i tried to talk about strategies that worked for me because actually in the modern age you don't need to be in politics to feel that you are beseasonalled by a lot of --be sieged by a lot of criticism. i can't imagine growing up as a teenager today you're too chubby or not pretty enough not popular enough. all the things kid goes through,

and have an instant chorus of criticism on social media. i can't imagine what's that like. but that is today's reality. whether you're prime minister in that course of criticism is the newspapers and the tvs or whether you're that teenaged girl and the course of criticism appears to be the four world but it's actual he the 30 or 40 people you know, which is really your whole world. a strategy to deal with it is try to nurture a sense of self that isn't pushed around by the critiques of others and having watched other women in politics i think one of the things that you can easily succumb to is for a period of time when there's a new woman on the -- golden girl phenomenon, and you get put on a pedestal and it's a long way to bloody fall. pedestals are high. when you fall you go through the

other end of the cycle. i deliberately made a set of decisions i would not let my sense of self-be hostage to either the golden girl phenomenon or the crash off the pedestal, that i was the same person on the days the newspapers were running well for me and the days when newspapers were running badly, and i think that's an important kind of coping strategy. on getting ready for politics the sort of, what falls, in a wonderful party style, i got some early lessons in resilience because it took me until my sort of mid-20s to decide that i would like to be in politics, and then it took me ten years and three failed preselection attachments to get there. i wasn't thanking the labor party for this treatment at the time, but looking back on it, across the full swath of

politics probably did toughen me up and enable me to get things how to deal with rejessica how to deal with when it's hard. so i'm not suggesting you throw yourself into as many negative experiences as possible are but in the way of things as a habit of handing out a few to most people and it's important to learn from them and strengthen the resilience around the comeback. >> the next book is "eat pray, vote." that was lovely. can we maybe get one more quick round -- who has -- hand way in the back there. and then the lady over there and then the lady in front of her. i'm sorry. we're supposed to close down soon. is that correct? three minutes ago. right. one round tom will ask one i will ask one, and then you can skip any of them you want. good ahead, sir.

>> i'm here from the australian financial review. thank you for your presentation youch lamented in some of your earlier comments about the bipartisanship being lost in the australian parliament on issues such as car been pricing. australia's new prime minister tony abbott just called for a mature debate on things like tax reform and signaled maybe there should be a discussion about creating the gst. do you think that's something that parliament could -- includes the labor party. >> mature debate is something we can all use. thank you so much for that. back here, and then the lady in front of you. i'm sorry for all of you. she will be signing books so you can ask her a question there. >> i am -- i have a question about -- thank you for all you said and all you did. but i had a question on the press. it has always fascinated me how the press loves or hates people and report well or bad

regardless of their work, and you're days where the press love you, did their best to impose on you, and my question is looking back would you change something, your relation with the press? is there anything you feel you could have done to come out better there are or it was just hopeness and in that case why? >> diplomatically you did not mention the name measure doc -- murdoch so i'm mentioning it. >> my name is lee, thank you for your presentation. seems you been through all kind of issue. i just wonder, as prime minister, that kind of position is very strong position that you should have in order to deal with the public interests, and all the interest for the general public. the war is -- don't agree with the capitalism and don't agree

and united states don't agree with communism so i just wonder if you can come up with something that can -- pull the general public interest and get rid of those one percent versus 99 percent. >> thank you. go ahead. tom. >> well -- >> why don't we pile ours on. >> just a brief question. you came out of the left faction of your state, but it was run of the two left factions, yet i look at your politics as they develop, and seeing people out of the right of the labor party moving to the left of you. do those factions within the labor party still have any ideological meaning, and are

their days numbered and they'll be with us but prime nearly for other purposes. >> i love that question. a total political junky's question. my quick question is, something i mentioned last night when we were talking, do you think -- when you think a lot about mrs. thatcher as obviously a major figure, woman who served for a long time. there is a difference between being a woman center left or a woman of the center right and is it harder if you're on the center left? >> okay. all right. i'll do my best. >> no notes. >> how do you possibly prepare for this. i think just picking up your questions and actually going to the question about the media one of the features of the australian media landscape is we have one of the most concentrated media markets in the world. i come from the city in

australia, adelaide that gave rupert murdoch to the world. he is from adelaide. and when i was growing up in adlai it was impossible to boy a newspaper that wasn't owned by mr. murdoch. the morning paper the afternoon paper and the local papers were all owned by mr. murdoch. all of these years later, in many parts of australia the readily available with all due apologies to our friends from the thin review, the readily available newspaper for people is only the murdoch paper. so the daily paper is only murdoch paper. so that does mean that there are questions of quality and questions of bias that intersection with our politics and i deal with some of that in the book and my hankering for a media market that had more

diversity and more quality in its presentation to the public. and certainly on carbon pricing to take just one big debate some of the things that got published as facts were just so ridiculously rubbish that it distorted the public discussion in a way that is not helpful and bemused me you get editorials in newspapers beating up generations of politicians saying why aren't they more die visionary can tackle deep bee bait and newspapers are make sure any deep debate gets distorted and pulled apart by reporting. it then leads back to this question of gender and a center left versus a center right woman. the issues of gender for me were playing out in a media market

which was overwhelmingly hostile to the government's agenda. query, if you were from the center right and were pursuing an agenda that got a lot of support in our media market how would questions of gender play it? i think they would still be there a bit but you want have the media, who was against your agenda being using and reflecting some of this gender criticism because they wouldn't be in the criticism business. so i think there is a connection here. on the day-to-day political question from australia i'm going disappoint you and say you need to talk to a day-to-day australian politician because their debates are the current generation and one thing i try to do as rigorous about as possible is not peeking over or looming over the shoulder of the current generation.

they have my support and i hope they do well in the tax debate you're talking about as well as all others and i'm confident they will. on the issues before the factions in labor for a long period of time -- well before i was prime minister, well before i wrote a book, well before i was deputy prime minister or even deputy on -- opposition leader -- a long time back in my political career i decided in the modern age most of this was nonsense, and i get where it came from. difference of opinion around attitudes toward communism in the soviet union and the u.s. and the whole nine yards-but in the modern age without both faultlines, it really had sort of ceased to have meaning.

i think the real faultlines in labor today -- there is a broad consensus on the economic sphere, the pair of markets, the engagement with markets, the need for these markets to be properly red regulated. the need for good social services and have a good economy, make our way in the world, a free trade agenda consensus on that lots of what people call left and people call right. a few kind of out liars on either side on the economic consensus but it's quite broad and quite deep, and then there's the social policy continuum that runs from the -- more progressives' end through to the more conservative end, on questions like abortion

same-sex marriage, maybe with some reflection back into women's roles and most of those things the pressure gets taken off by conscience votes. so i got elected into parliament the same time as the very good friend of mine, who was a wonderful health minister. she pioneered plain packaging of cigarettes to persuade youth from not smoking and that appears to have helped. she was on the right issue was on the left, and there would be precious few issues that talking amongst ourselves we ever disagreed on. so just kind of goes to show a lot of this doesn't really make sense. will it endure? i think it probably will for a period of time to come. it's like a habit you can't

quite give up. and it does at its best, the fact there are organizing units within the party does help manage potential conflicts and debates. so at its best it's got to roll but i think we're on a journey for democratizing the labor party, the first step of which was taken in the district balloting for leader after the election -- with the election of bill shorten as labor leader, and i think the more steps we take towards democracyization they won't be able to guide a bigger and bigger pool of people, and i think that is a very healthy development. i've done as much as could i on those questions. >> i'm sure now mr. murdoch says, i come from the city that

gave julia gillard to the world. we are honored and happy to have jewelas as a colleague here. second she will be signing books and i just want to read a passage that goes bang to penny in spices. a wonderful passage right at the beginning of the book where julia says the taste of politics is always bittersweet because the best and the worst of things are often inex-trek blue woven together. i i have endeferred to convey the complexity of the flavor but sometimes the sweet the ability to do thing is so passionately believed would make our nation more stronger and fairer was always the most intense. thank you so much. [applause]

>> lincoln scholar harold holzer reports that lincoln was defendant at using the press to push his political agenda but quick to censor papers he deemed disloyal. >> so, enough about the business of the national archives. let's talk about the business of tonight. it's my pleasure to introduce the two speakers you'll hear from this evening. first, harold holzer, who is a lead are authority on lincoln and the civil war. he is chairman or the abraham lincoln bicentennial organization. honored for his work he has earned second place lincoln prize for "lincoln at keep union" in 2005, and in 2008 was awarded the national humanities medal. he is senior vice president at the met