Gillard says she was loyal to Rudd until leadership challenge

A month after being ousted as Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard today said she was loyal to her colleague Kevin Rudd right until the day she challenged him for the leadership in June 2010.
Gillard, 51, Australia's first woman Prime Minister said her behaviour was in contrast to Rudd's camp in the lead up to the latest challenge.
Gillard who will retire from politics at the election, was still staunchly of the belief that she was the right person to lead the party to election victory right up until her ouster.
"I wouldn't continue if I didn't have the sense that I've got the better capacity, the better ability to do it," she had said.

Gillard, in an interview to 'The Monthly' magazine, said she was trying her best to get the government back on track right up until the day she decided to challenge Rudd.
Gillard further commented that she believed she would have been treated differently had she been black.

She said some of the derogatory remarks made about her would have been the downfall of her opponents had she been indigenous.
In her speech last month, Gillard had said she was privileged to have been the nation's first female prime minister but said it partly explained her political demise.
In response to a recent controversial Radio interview where Gillard was asked by a Perth-based Radio host if her partner Tim Mathieson was gay, Gillard said she enjoyed his company.

"I get the benefit of company that's about me as a person," she said.