The Real Julia?

"Prime Minister Julia Gillard says it is a tragedy millions of Australian adults still cannot read and has called for greater action to boost literacy levels. The National Year of Reading campaign was launched today in a bid to encourage reading nationwide and tackle taboos surrounding illiteracy. About 4.5 million working-age Australians do not have the necessary higher reading and numeracy skills to succeed in work or study, Ms Gillard said. 'Illiteracy is a tragedy,' Ms Gillard said at the campaign launch at the National Library of Australia... 'For a rich nation with universal education Australia could do better'." (We can do better: Julia Gillard's pledge to our illiterate millions, news.com.au, 14/2/12)

I speculated back in January that Julia Gillard's alleged holiday reading list may have been merely an invention of her spinmeister. (See my 9/1/12 post What Gillard Will & Won't Be Learning from Her Holiday Reading.) Looks like I was right:

"When not preoccupied with leading the nation, the Prime Minister spends her time at the Lodge knitting woollen cardigans for babies and unwinding with a regime of yoga and boxing. Julia Gillard whipped out her knitting bag during a lunch with The Sunday Telegraph at Kirribilli. The knitting bag, a lime green affair with silver lining, has a travelling tag stamped 'Prime Minister'. 'I'm on a smock coat - for a two-year-old - with quite a complex pattern at the top which requires you to count stitches in eight-stitch lots,' she explained. 'If you're just knitting a plain bit of the pattern, I can just watch the TV; if I'm at a stage where I have to count stitches, I'll look up 15 minutes later and go, 'I don't even know who these people are any more. Who's killed who in this episode?'" (Relaxation that soothes a prime minister's knitted brow, Samantha Maiden, 10/6/12)