OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott gave a "green light to the baying wolves'' to attack Julia Gillard on the basis of gender, senior Labor Minister Penny Wong says.

Senator Wong, South Australia's most powerful Federal Labor representative, switched her support from Ms Gillard to Kevin Rudd in Wednesday's ballot.

She says as a feminist she had particularly supported Ms Gillard but circumstances forced her to make one of the hardest decisions of her career. In an exclusive interview with The Advertiser she talked about how the gender wars began, and how her support for Ms Gillard ended.

In her final statement Ms Gillard said gender had played a role in how she was treated.

``(The) reaction to being the first female Prime Minister does not explain everything about my Prime Ministership, nor does it explain nothing about my Prime Ministership,'' she said.

Senator Wong agreed with that sentiment, and when asked whether she also agreed with Ms Gillard that it will now be easier for Australia to have another female Prime Minister she said it would be ``more possible''.

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``How hard or easy that is in part depends on how we as a community be honest about what happened and how we can as a Parliament become a little more bipartisan in our desire to enable women to succeed ... our willingness to implicitly and explicitly prevent sexism and misogyny dominating,'' she said.

``There was implicit permission and at times explicit permission to go her.

``I would say it is a legitimisation of invective and a legitimisation of prejudice.

``If you have the alternative Prime Minister calling her the stuff he did ... the signals he gave with Julia that `no doesn't mean no', `make an honest woman of herself', standing in front of signs that say 'bitch' and 'witch', not coming out and really slamming the personal abuse of some of the talkback shows.

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"That is a green light to the baying wolves. And when you're in a position of leadership you've got a role.. as a gatekeeper against that.''

Senator Wong said accusing women of using the gender card was nothing more than a silencing technique. On her decision to support Mr Rudd in the ballot that delivered him power, she said: "The first thing I'd say is that through this I really tried to keep my own counsel.

"I voted for Julia on the last occasion because I still believed that she was the person who should be Prime Minister and out of personal loyalty, and as the first female Prime Minister, I thought it was important to continue to support her,'' she said.

"Then I gradually became more and more concerned at the political position of the Labor Party. "Particularly in this last week I'd been weighing up what I saw as my two loyalties, which previously had been aligned. My personal loyalty to her and my loyalty to the party.''

For Senator Wong, those two loyalties stopped being "aligned''.

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In the weeks leading up to the spill there were a series of incredibly bad polls for the Labor Party, that showed them heading for what Mr Rudd has called a ``catastrophic defeat''.

One poll revealed by The Advertiser last week showed that Labor would keep just two seats in South Australia with Julia Gillard at the helm.

The internal polling found Labor would retain just 30 to 35 seats nationally, and that only Kingston, held by Amanda Rishworth and Port Adelaide, held by Mark Butler, were safe.

That would mean Kate Ellis would lose the seat of Adelaide, Steve Georganas would lose Hindmarsh, Nick Champion would lose Wakefield, and Tony Zappia would lose Makin.

That and other polls suggest the surge away from Labor would also deliver the Coalition control or effective control of the Senate.

Senator Wong would be safe as she is number one on the Senate ticket for South Australia.

Senator Don Farrell, one of the men who helped give Ms Gillard the Prime Ministership and one who stood by her in the final vote, is second on the ticket but could still have had reason to feel nervous.

But Senator Wong said her decision was more complex than just a reaction to bad polls.

``There's a lot of discussion about it being poll driven, but how I think about it is where you have a role as a custodian of the Labor Party and part of that job is to make sure the Labor Party is as strong as it can be and remains viable in hard times,'' she said.

``And I wouldn't be in the Labor Party if I didn't think Australia is a better place for there being Labor Governments.''

Without Labor values, Australians would not have Medicare and superannuation and other crucial social infrastructure, she argued.

Senator Wong is now the first female Leader in the Senate, as her predecessor Stephen Conroy quit once Mr Rudd got the votes. Asked whether she conceded that being given the top job in the Senate after switching her vote looked like a deal, Senator Wong said her elevation, which was voted on unanimously, was the last thing on her mind.

``They misunderstand why we do what we do, why we're members of the Labor Party,'' she said.

``It's not about our jobs. It's about the Australian people.

``It wasn't front of mind. I had not actually turned my mind to anything other than the leadership.''

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd put same-sex marriage back on the agenda yesterday, pointing out that he believes he is the first Australian Prime Minister to be a fully-fledged supporter.

Senator Wong had agitated internally for a switch in the Labor Party's position on same-sex marriage and has been a powerful voice for gay rights, gay marriage and against bigotry in recent times.

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Ms Gillard had said she was not in favour of change, often citing that the idea that marriage should be between a man and a woman was the traditional position.

Mr Rudd, on the other hand, had a high-profile change of mind recently.

He wrote he had ``come to the conclusion that church and state can have different positions and practices on the question of same sex marriage''.

``I believe the secular Australian state should be able to recognise same sex marriage,'' he said.

Senator Wong said that had had no impact on her decision to swing her support behind him, and that changing the law on same-sex marriage would need bipartisan support.

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