Prime Minister Julia Gillard created history by becoming Australia’s first female Prime Minister

WHILE the polls have shown that Julia Gillard is well-regarded, they have also shown that many voters are dissatisfied with the way she became Prime Minister. So far, this dissatisfaction has been masked by Julia Gillard's considerable popularity. What criticisms there have been have concentrated on the internecine brutality of Labor's factional politics.

 Prime Minister Julia Gillard is set to announce  her foreign policy agenda  at the Lowy Institute in Sydney .Hot topics include whether Ms Gillard will carry on former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's international plans: a new Asia-Pacific community, a bid for a temporary seat on the UN security council, and restrictions on nuclear weapons.

 Other sensitive issues for the new Prime Minister include the war in Afghanistan and the relationship with Israel.

 There could be more changes made to the new mining tax, with the Australian Greens flagging that they want to amend it in the Senate.

 With the opposition rejecting the tax proposal, the government will need to win over the Greens - and possibly more senators - to get it through parliament after the election.

 Greens leader Bob Brown took a dim view of what he described as a 'monumental backdown' by the government last week over the tax.

 Prime Minister Julia Gillard cut the rate of tax, increased the threshold at which it kicked in, and exempted some industries from paying it.

 But Senator Brown said he didn't want to block the tax.

 'It is not my intention to block it but to make it better,' he said.

 'We will ensure a currycomb is run through this tax with a very close Senate scrutiny.'

 Senator Brown did not elaborate on which changes the Greens would pursue, beyond noting he had previously called for a sovereign fund to be set up to safeguard the money raised.

 He was concerned that small businesses would get a smaller cut in company tax because of the scaling back of the mining tax.

 And he raised questions about how much the tax compromise would affect revenue, saying that compromise would cut revenue by about $4 billion dollars a year, after the first few years.

 Government figures put the revenue cut at significantly less.

 Prime Minister Julia Gillard is expected to announce a tougher stance on asylum seekers as early as today.

 Cabinet met yesterday to discuss a shift in policy before the government freeze on processing Sri Lankan asylum claims expires on Thursday.

 The latest report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says security in Sri Lanka is greatly improved but some women and children and people with links to the Tamil Tigers may still be at risk of persecution.

 There's been speculation the Gillard government could send home Sri Lankans and Afghans whose claims remain on hold for another three months to try to deter people smugglers.

 Opposition leader Tony Abbott is also expected to unveil stricter border security measures today including the return of temporary protection visas and off-shore processing if the coalition wins the coming election.