Australia has got its first-ever female Prime Minister this morning, as the unpopular Kevin Rudd steps down as leader of the Labor Party and Julia Gillard rises.

Gillard, who pundits describe as a committed, patient and savvy politician, is expected to be officially sworn in next week.

The nation’s same-sex marriage equality backers were quick to react to Gillard’s ascent. Australian Marriage Equality’s National Convener Alex Greenwich says he’s looking forward to discussing the issue with the new PM.

“We are hopeful Julia Gillard has an open mind on marriage equality,” he says. “Unlike Kevin Rudd, She is not known for putting conservative religion prejudices ahead of legal equality and fundamental human rights.”

Julia on same-sex marriage

But a lengthy TV interview with Gillard last year suggests gay marriage may still be a long way off.

“The Government’s position is very clear that marriage is marriage between a man and a woman,” she told Sky News.

“But we understand, I understand that there are other forms of committed adult relationships and that people want them registered and recognised. And we have obviously said in the past that we understand that there are schemes in states that are moving along to recognise committed adult relationships.”

She added: “This is a Government that said when we ran for office that we recognised marriage was between a man and a woman but we did want to act on all sorts of discrimination against same sex couples. And we’ve done that. Across the suite of what the government does, whether its whether it’s tax or social security matters, we’ve moved to end discrimination of the treatment of same sex couples.”