Former prime minister Julia Gillard has conceded that her desire to have a debate around the merit of marriage in modern society, instead of supporting same-sex marriage, was "wrong".
During her prime ministership, Ms Gillard opposed same-sex marriage and voted against a private member's bill in 2012 that sought to legalise it, saying she believed in the traditional meaning of the union.
Five years later, then-Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull oversaw the national same-sex marriage postal survey, where more than 60 per cent of respondents voted in favour of marriage equality.
Less than a month after the results, just before the end of 2017, federal parliament officially voted the change into law.
Ms Gillard ultimately changed her position and publicly supported same-sex marriage, admitting that her parliamentary vote against it did not align with her personal beliefs.
After leaving politics, she revealed another factor behind her initial position was that she wanted a broader conversation about the role of marriage and the need for alternative, non-religious ways to legitimise relationships.
Speaking on the ABC TV program The ABC Of... with David Wenham, Ms Gillard was asked whether she was obliged to "play politics" when it came to her stance while in parliament.
"I wouldn't say obliged but it was a political issue," she said.
"As a feminist I always wanted us to have a deeper debate about the role of marriage and I thought maybe this was the moment for the deeper debate.
"I got that wrong, you know, got it incredibly wrong and very happy to say that.
"And then as the campaign for change grew stronger and stronger and it became clear that the only debate to be had was marriage equality, then I was very happy to support marriage equality."
Gillard 'at peace' with misogyny speech popularity
Ms Gillard also reflected on her famous misogyny speech, delivered on the floor of parliament in 2012.
The speech went viral at the time reaching millions in Australia and around the globe.
Ms Gillard admitted she was at one point "a little bit resentful" that, for many people, the address defined her time as prime minister, overshadowing some of her major political work, such as the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
"For a period, it was all everybody was talking about in terms of my time in office," she said.
"But I'm well and truly at peace with it now because most leaders don't get remembered for very much is the truth of it. They certainly don't get internationally recognised for very much.
"So now, as I spend quite a bit of my life overseas and I have people talk to me about that speech, it's sort of the only thing they know about Australian politics."
Looking back, Ms Gillard said she was first elected at a time where women were showing they could cope and survive in parliament.
"So we were proving we could be great backbenchers, and then proving we could be great shadow ministers and then proving we could be, you know, cabinet ministers in government and on it went," she said.
"Until women have answered that 'can women do it?' question — which people don’t articulate but they definitely think — until you've answered that, you don't get the freedom to then say, 'and now, let's change the environment and make it really different.'"
"And I think we're at that stage now and that's a great stage to be at."
Ms Gillard said she believed it would be impossible now for another female MP to be subjected to gendered criticism like she was and the political price of doing so would be "huge".
Watch Julia Gillard on The ABC Of... with David Wenham tonight at 8pm, or on ABC iview.
