My partner has a right to live his life: Australian PM

MELBOURNE - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard says that her partner, who works as a real estate salesman for a property group owned by a pro-Israel lobbyist, has “a right to live his life too”.

Gillard’s partner Tim Mathieson is employed at a firm by Melbourne developer Albert Dadon, a pro-Israel lobbyist.

She said her public condemnation of recent Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli territory during the Gaza intervention was well before there had been any suggestion of Mathieson working for Dadon, The Age reported Tuesday.

She said she had taken advice on the issue because she did not want to make an inappropriate decision in cabinet. “I have made all the necessary declarations and disclosures.”

Gillard said she was the first prime minister with a male partner who had his own career and job.

“I hope that people would understand that, that he’s got a right to live his life too,” she was quoted as saying.