Former prime minister Julia Gillard will give talks to mark the 10-year anniversary of her anti-misogyny speech directed at then-leader of the opposition Tony Abbott.

A now-famous speech occurred in parliament on 9 October 2012, with Ms Gillard responding to Mr Abbott’s accusation that she had been sexist. 

Mr Abbott had challenged Ms Gillard to sack Speaker Peter Slipper over misogynistic text messages he had sent.

“This Speaker’s standards are this prime minister’s standards,” Mr Abbott said, accusing Ms Gillard of leading “a government that should already have died of shame”.

Ms Gillard unleashed, declaring: “I will not be lectured by misogyny and sexism by this man, I will not”.

“And the government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. 

“Not now, not ever.”

Ms Gillard has written a book about the speech that will be released in advance of the talks in October. The book is titled ‘Not Now, Not Ever’. In it, the former PM describes her outburst as a “cathartic experience”.

“But what has meant even more has been gathering the reflections and thoughts from others about then, now, and what next,” Ms Gillard says.

Proceeds from both the book and tickets to the talks will be directed to the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership. The book features submissions from Wayne Swan, Brittany Higgins, Deborah Mailman, and Cate Blanchett.

Ms Gillard has reflected on the speech in the decade since, telling the ABC in 2019: “There was a time where I was a little resentful that all those years in politics, and all of that work, and everything we did … that all of it apparently came down to one moment in time, one speech”.

“But I’m reconciled with it now and I understand that when people are writing things about me — including writing my obituary, hopefully in many years to come — that it’s going to feature in there.”

The speech has also gained popularity as a sound on TikTok, with a video from TikTok user @minorfauna in 2020, featuring the speech remixed with Doja Cat’s Boss Bitch, having over 1.5 million views at the time of writing.