Less than a year later, Gillard had been ousted as Labor leader by Kevin Rudd, and Abbott had taken over as leader of a new coalition government, appointing only one woman to his cabinet.
Even her manner of appointing ministers had warmth.
David Cameron appears to have sidelined his home secretary, Theresa May, by appointing Oliver Letwin to run the Whitehall home affairs committee and taking personal control of taskforces relating to immigration and extremism.
Al-Qaida has moved to reassert its battered authority, appointing as its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian militant mastermind who has vowed to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden with a September 11-style mass attack.
To deal with internal power struggles within the royal circle, in 2006 Abdullah announced the establishment of the allegiance committee, a secretive body consisting of the most senior princes in charge of appointing the future king – but only after Abdullah himself and Crown Prince Sultan had served as kings.
In August 2003, a seriously ill Aliyev engineered a dynastic succession, appointing his son, Ilham, as prime minister.
"Appointing a woman is a historic moment for Oxford but appointing this woman is a huge investment in our future as well," said Josephine Quinn, vice-provost of Worcester College.
Gove called time on Sally Morgan's time as chair, three years after appointing the former Blair adviser while still in a less partisan mood.
David Cameron stood accused by Ed Miliband of acting as a "dodgy prime minister" after he repeatedly failed in the House of Commons to say whether he had discussed tax avoidance at HSBC with Stephen Green before appointing him as trade minister in 2011.
Schools will lose the option of appointing secular social workers under the national school chaplaincy program, for which the Abbott government has found an extra $245m in budget funding.
At no point did the he suggest the appointment of Juncker could destabilise the UK government, the source said, and he was simply went into Tuesday's dinner making it clear that appointing a face from the past could pose a risk to the stability of the EU.
