The past week of the election campaign has been dominated by jokes about the 'real Julia' and the 'fake Julia'. With the party's efforts to retain government falling apart, Labor leader Julia Gillard vowed to throw away the rule book and to be herself.
Could this turn out to be a campaign run on an authenticity platform? The truth is that most commentators did not notice any significant difference between the two Julias. It just became clear that she would now do 'whatever it takes' to stem the rising tide of support for Liberal leader Tony Abbott.
This included courting religious voters and being photographed for the front page of Friday's Sydney Morning Herald looking up to Cardinal George Pell with an admiring glance. On Thursday evening she had attended a fundraising dinner for expenses associated with October's Mary MacKillop canonisation in Rome. She offered $1.5 million in government money, but much more than that in flattery to Catholic electors.
Gillard called the months leading up to the canonisation 'a deeply significant time for all of us who may not share the Catholic faith but still deeply respect the great contribution of the church and of Australian Catholics to the social fabric of our nation'.
The atheist 'real Julia' got as close as she could to saying that she is at one with MacKillop's faith-filled vision for Catholic education. She said: '[Mary MacKillop] believed in the transformative power of a good education'.
On Friday afternoon, Gillard addressed the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL). While not referring to any 'great moral challenges of our time', she spoke of her Baptist upbringing and committed to faith-based school chaplaincy and vowed to oppose gay marriage.
Commentators such as the ABC's Scott Stephens quoted her vow to Jon Faine on Melbourne radio not to sell her atheist soul for the sake of the Christian vote. It was during the 'fake Julia' phase early in the campaign, and she declared: 'I am not going to pretend a faith I don't feel'.
The problem could be that Gillard has no idea about how to be real. Instead she appears focused on matching the apparent success of her opponent Tony Abbott, and his disciplined 'whatever it takes' style of campaigning. She has forgotten her own 'phoney Tony' mantra and fallen victim comprehensively to what her own side of politics regards as Abbott's deceitfulness.
If she is genuine in her quest to be real, she