CNN- Australia’s Labor Party has elected Julia Gillard as the new prime minister, making her the nation’s first woman in that position, a party spokesman said Thursday.

“A special meeting of the party was held this morning at which the positions of leader and deputy leader were declared vacant,” Labor Returning Officer Michael Forshaw told reporters in Canberra, outside the room at Parliament House where the decision had been made.

“The new leader, elected unopposed, is Julia Gillard,” he said of the 48-year-old lawyer.

Also elected unopposed as deputy is Wayne Swan, he said. Swan served as treasurer of the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

“We now have a new team,” Forshaw said.

“Julia’s unique, hard-working, passionate, driven by noble ideals and wants to do good things for the country,” John Gillard told 7 Network Australia about his daughter, who was to be sworn in later Thursday.

Born in Wales, she moved with her parents to Australia when she was a child. After studying law, she was elected to the House of Representatives for Lalor, Victoria in 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007 prior to joining Rudd as deputy prime minister.

Thursday’s announcement came moments after Rudd stepped down after a breathtakingly fast fall from popularity.

The Mandarin-speaking career diplomat won his party’s leadership in 2006 and won a landslide victory over the government of conservative John Howard in 2007.

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