Gillard could become first Aus PM to marry while in office

Tim Mathieson, a former hairdresser who is known as Australia's 'First Bloke', said he would like to tie the knot one day with the 49-year-old.

"I would like to ask her," he was quoted as saying by Sunday Herald Sun, but said that he was in no hurry.

At the same time, Mathieson, who has been married before and has three children, said he has not yet discussed his plan with country's first female Prime Minister.

"At the moment I'm really quite happy with our relationship the way it is. Like Julia, I don't think we need to be cemented in any other way. We're just happy with the way we are, but I would hope if I did ask her that, of course, she would say yes. Absolutely. It's a natural thing," he said.

However, Gillard, 49, who has never married before, has played down the suggestions of an imminent wedding, saying she has no present plans to marry her partner Mathieson.
"There is no rock on the finger, so I think everybody can say we're a happy couple and that's a good thing," she told ABC Television.

No Australian prime minister has ever married while in office.