Julia Gillard lashed out at The Australian newspaper and those whom she called "the misogynists and the nut jobs on the internet" today in a marathon press conference prompted by days of rumour-mongering about her past.

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The PM challenged "the journalistic elite of this country" to hit her with their best questions over reports about alleged impropriety during her time with law firm Slater and Gordon.

Ms Gillard has been under pressure over allegations in The Australian over her role in helping to set up a so-called union "slush fund", which was later misused, for her then-boyfriend Bruce Wilson.

She was fronting the press after The Australian issued a three-line apology over allegations it published today.

"An article in today's The Australian reported that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had set up a trust fund for her then boyfriend 17 years ago," the paper's apology says.

"This is wrong. The Australian apologises for the error."

Today's story was the latest in a series of The Australian's reports about Ms Gillard's departure from Slater and Gordon and the law firm's 1995 internal probe into her work for Mr Wilson.

At today's press conference in Canberra Ms Gillard firmly rejected any suggestions that she behaved inappropriately.

She said she did provide legal advice to set up the fund but she believed it was set up for legitimate purposes, namely to support the re-election of union officials.

"The Australian newspaper republished a false and highly defamatory claim about my conduct in relation to these matters 17 years ago," she said.

"It is a claim about me setting up a trust fund.

"A claim was first published by News Limited in relation to me and funds during the election campaign in 2007. On that occasion, the claim was retracted and apologised for.

"The claim was made by Glenn Milne, a then-columnist with The Australian newspaper. Such a dim view was taken of his conduct in relation to that matter [that] his employment was terminated.

"Despite these events, a similar claim has been recirculated by The Australian newspaper today.

"People may have already seen that the claim has been retracted and apologised for, and that retraction and apology appears on The Australian website and as I understand it on all News Limited websites.

"In these circumstances, where I am seeing, recycled again, false and defamatory material attacking my character, I have determined that I will deal with these issues.

"I understood the purpose of the association to be to support the re-election of a team of union officials that would stand on a platform. I provided advice to assist with the incorporation of the association and then knew nothing further about its workings until these matters were raised in 1995."

Sorry, this video has expired Highlights of Julia Gillard's marathon press conference (AAP: Lukas Coch)

She hit out at ongoing internet rumour-mongering, sheeting it home to "the misogynists and the nut jobs on the internet" and likening them to the so-called Birther movement which continues to claim that president Barack Obama was not born in the US.

"It wouldn't matter what I said, and it wouldn't matter what documents were produced, and it wouldn't matter what anybody else said - they will pursue this claim for motivations of their own which are malicious and not in any way associated with the facts," she said.

"In terms of the conduct of more mainstream media, well, you are in a better position to answer that than me, but I've been on my feet now for, what, I can't quite recall, 50 minutes, something like that, taking every question that the journalistic elite of this country have got for me.

"If that doesn't end the matter, then, with respect, I don't know what would."

She accused cartoonist Larry Pickering of circulating "sexist and vicious" rumours about her on the internet but said taking legal action for defamation would be pointless.

"Look, it's dignifying them with a status that they don't deserve.

"Certainly Mr Pickering is bankrupt or something, so you would end up on a never-ending trail, for what purpose? Because he could lose a dozen defamation actions and he would still pursue this.

"He would still be propagating sexist and vicious stuff about me until the end of time.

"So this is not reason, it's not facts, it's not anything to do with any of those things. It's to do with this sort of Americanisation of our politics, these eccentric Tea Party-style interventions that we are seeing in our politics and there is nothing that I, a person of reason, can do to deal with it.

"The best thing you can do is just ignore it because I suspect giving it any attention gives them some satisfaction."