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Prime Minister Julia Gillard responds to media questions about her time at law firm Slater and Gordon. Photo: Andrew Meares

ON THE night of June 23, 2010, as factional players blitzed the federal caucus with phone calls, urging Labor MPs to throw out Kevin Rudd in favour of Julia Gillard, one leading figure of the labour movement was anxious to prosecute the case in public. When all other leading figures were running for cover, Paul Howes, the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, appeared on ABC television to argue for Gillard as the nation's new prime minister.

In strictly political terms, the AWU is the most powerful single entity within the Labor Party. It has been the bulwark of Gillard's support base within the ALP and the union movement during her time as leader. When she faced a challenge from Rudd early this year, the AWU stuck fast, ensuring her a big victory.

Gillard's political and professional relationship with the AWU goes back a long way, through various ideological twists and turns. Twenty years ago, before she became a political adviser and then a member of parliament, Gillard was a solicitor with the industrial practice of Melbourne firm Slater & Gordon. The AWU was a client of the firm. Gillard handled the AWU's legal work and developed a romantic connection with the union's then Victorian secretary, Bruce Wilson.

In 1995, two big events took place in Gillard's life: her relationship with Wilson ended and she left Slater & Gordon, where she had been a salaried partner. The events were not unrelated. Wilson had allegedly misused funds from a legal entity that Gillard had helped establish, the AWU Workplace Reform Association.

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Soon after this became known within Slater & Gordon, Gillard resigned her position, but not before she was interviewed by the senior partner, Peter Gordon, and general manager, Geoff Shaw.

The transcript of that interview, conducted on September 11, 1995 - 18 days before Gillard's 34th birthday - appeared in The Australian this week. The paper has been devoting a lot of energy and space to the matter of Gillard's time as a lawyer.

There is a legitimate question about how much it is in the public interest to dredge up what Gillard did or did not do and what she did or did not know in relation to Wilson and his stewardship of the AWU and its finances. It pre-dates her time as an MP and no charges were ever laid following a police investigation. The Prime Minister herself said last Sunday that it had no relevance to her in her current role.

But it is also legitimate to look at a prime minister's entire professional life. Character and conduct count. And if things have gone wrong in the past, if mistakes were made, there is always a real prospect of redemption. Bob Hawke is living proof of that. In this case, it's worth noting that while these events were taking place, Gillard was not young, freshly arrived in the workforce. She was in her 30s.

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Her last word? Perhaps, but it isn't all history yet