My motivation for creating this Change.org petition is both for wanting to see a female for the first time as UN Secretary-General and wanting to see an Australian for the first time in that world top job. For a woman to obtain the world top job, it represents breaking the highest glass ceiling! Out of all the prospective female candidates in all the countries for the next UN Secretary-General, the one most likely to win it is the former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (the biggest reason for that is mentioned in the next paragraph). The intention of this petition is for it to be signed by both Australians and non-Australians, meaning this is a global call on the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to nominate Julia Gillard as Australia’s candidate for the next UN Secretary-General. More and more signatures on the petition in the next few months until the middle of 2026 (when a decision on a nominee has to be taken) will put more and more pressure on Anthony Albanese to ask Ms Gillard to be Australia’s candidate. An additional factor for Australians to sign is that Ms Gillard represents Australia’s best chance of securing the world top job precisely because she represents the best chance among prospective women candidates to secure it. Therefore, the Australian Government is obliged to nominate her both for international and national reasons.

For 2026, now that the current holder of the position António Guterres is stepping down at the end of the year, there is a process underway for the selection of the new UN Secretary-General and nations have been invited to provide nominees to the position. There will be multiple female nominees, but Julia Gillard clearly represents the greatest opportunity for a woman candidate to take the position; however, that is dependent on the Australian Government actually nominating her. The biggest reason Ms Gillard is the best prospective female candidate is from the profile and authority she received from delivering the ‘misogyny speech’ on 10 October 2012: Ms Gillard became famous around the world from the viral video of that speech when, in the Australian Parliament, the then Prime Minister told off the then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for his sexism and misogyny. The video of the speech spread to developing nations as well as developed countries. Ms Gillard said she first realised of the global nature of that spread when that speech was raised with her, later in 2012, in a Prime Ministerial trip to India (mentioned there to her the first time by a female Indian security guard). If you have not done so, I suggest you watch the speech or even watch it again. The full 15 minutes of the speech can be seen on YouTube using the following web link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihd7ofrwQX0

Julia Gillard is interested in global affairs and, when she has been asked, has taken on international positions. The full details of her participation in global affairs (after leaving Australian Parliament in September 2013) can be found in her profile on Wikipedia, but I will extract some details: In October of 2013, she joined the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education as a non-resident Senior Fellow. In September 2016, she was appointed a visiting Professor at King's College London, joining the King's Policy Institute to chair the Global Institute for Women's Leadership (as well as the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies). In April 2021, she was appointed Chair of the Board of Governors at the Wellcome Trust, one of the most biggest philanthropic charitable trusts; the Wellcome Trust is headquartered at London in the UK but with global reach, supporting research and innovation in medicine, public health, mental health and climate change.

The biggest international position Julia Gillard held was as Chair of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE); she has served as the Chair of the GPE from February 2014 to September 2021. The GPE is an international organisation focused on getting all children into school for a quality education in the world’s poorest countries. The Board of Directors consists of members from developing countries, donors, civil society organisations, private sector organisations, foundations and international organisations. As the Chair of the GPE, Ms Gillard had received good preparation to take on the UN Secretary-General position. Additionally, the fact for nearly three years (from 2010 to 2013) she had run an Australian Government that did not fully control Parliament is good preparation for the top job in the (fractious) UN.

Education is what Julia Gillard has described as her passion. She can do far more for global education as UN Secretary-General than she was able to do as GPE Chair. With a focus on global education, Ms Gillard could transform the UN Secretary-General role. She can bring in other things to the role as well. When she was Prime Minister, Ms Gillard established the Royal Commission into child sex abuse at Australian institutions, which (as UN Secretary-General) she could use as a model to encourage other countries to start their own major inquiries into child sex abuse. Importantly, out of all the prospective candidates for the world top job, she can do most in tackling global misogyny, due to the profile and authority she obtained from the ‘misogyny speech’. The present trend of global misogyny has developed not just because of the rise of far-right movements and far-right political parties, but because of social media influencers like Andrew Tate. In terms of misogyny, as it has drifted away from world news’ headlines and global attention, it is important to be aware of the place with the deepest misogyny: Afghanistan under control of its Taliban government. (This can be seen in the TV documentary ‘Nine Days In Afghanistan’, produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and released in January 2026.) Women are heavily restricted in going out in public, education for females is banned above school grade six, and women are banned from having jobs. Banning women from jobs includes health workers and aid workers, which is even imposed on foreign women operating in humanitarian organisations. The case of Afghanistan demonstrates the depths that misogyny goes to. Having a woman as an UN Secretary-General for the first time represents an opportunity to reverse that global misogyny trend.

For more information on the current selection process for the new UN Secretary-General, it can be found in the Security Council’s December 2025 Forecast. On 25 November 2025, the Presidents of the General Assembly and Security Council sent out a joint letter marking the beginning of the selection process. Quoting from the December 2025 Forecast: “The joint letter invites member states to present their candidates for the position while also setting out the modalities for submitting and considering nominations.” Importantly, the joint letter encourages member states to “strongly consider nominating women as candidates”; this will help Julia Gillard as a nominee. The joint letter additionally notes “the importance of regional diversity in the selection of Secretaries-General” without identifying a specific geographic area. The Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) has been strongly advocating for a UN Secretary-General from its region (not having had one since the 1980s). Nevertheless, a UN Secretary-General has never come from the Pacific, and Australia is from the Pacific; regional diversity is increased more by the next UN Secretary-General being from a Pacific country than from a GRULAC nation. As well, it is crucial now for the UN to have the Pacific region considered with the issue of climate change; some Pacific islands are threatened with sinking completely into the sea, due to global warming. Therefore, greater recognition of global warming is another reason for non-Australians to sign a petition for an Australian to become the next UN Secretary-General. Further details in the December 2025 Forecast can be read in the following web link:
https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/monthly-forecast/2025-12/in-hindsight-the-search-for-the-next-un-secretary-general-begins.php

In conclusion then, please sign this petition to call on the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to nominate Julia Gillard as Australia’s candidate for the next UN Secretary-General; Ms Gillard being the greatest opportunity for a woman to secure the world top job for the first time. I have covered what is at stake and what would be lost if that opportunity is not taken. That opportunity will not be an option at all if Anthony Albanese does not nominate Ms Gillard by the middle of 2026; this means the more signatures on the petition the sooner the better!