The Prime Minister has denied that her security detail overreacted when dragging her from a heated protest in Canberra yesterday.
Photographs showed the Prime Minister almost falling to the ground as she and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott fled a Canberra restaurant which had become surrounded by protesters from the nearby Aboriginal tent embassy.
"The police did an amazing job", Ms Gillard said.
Ms Gillard said she was 'very angry' at the disruption to an Australia Day event, however.
"Ive got absolutely no troubles at all with peaceful protest...what I utterly condemn is when the protests turn violent...as they did yesterday."
Protesters have denied the use of violence, saying the police overreacted both in their treatment of activists, and in their heavy-handed treatment of the PM herself.
Spokesman Mark McMurtie told the ABC the police were to blame for the violence.
"The only violence you can see came from the police, don't say it was a violent protest, it was a violent reaction to the protest."
The PM also said she was unaware of claims on a Sydney radio claiming that a member of her staff tipped off protesters to the fact that Mr Abbott was in the nearby restaurant
ABBOTT STANDS FIRM
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, meanwhile, is standing by the comments that whipped protesters into a frenzy on Australia Day.
He's also been backed by some senior indigenous leaders who've slammed protesters for reacting violently to "pretty timid" remarks.
Activists continue to blame Mr Abbott for inciting their protest after he suggested they "move on" from issues that gave birth to the Aboriginal tent embassy outside Old Parliament House this day 40 years ago.
Interpreted as a sign he wanted to tear down the makeshift settlement, an angry crowd of 200 people trapped the prime minister and Mr Abbott in a restaurant, prompting a chaotic escape in which Ms Gillard stumbled and lost a shoe.
Mr Abbott on Friday said some in the protest group had "verballed" him.
"As a result, it stirred people up," he told Macquarie Radio.
'THINGS HAVE MOVED ON'
He stood by his original comments, saying it wasn't true that indigenous policy had been neglected or the government was indifferent to the plight of Aboriginal people.
"That might have been true 40 years ago. It certainly isn't true today."
Former ALP national president and indigenous leader Warren Mundine said the activists had over-reacted.
"The words were pretty timid," he told ABC Radio, noting Mr Abbott hadn't said anything about shutting down the embassy.
"He echoed words I would have echoed."
Mr Mundine said the tent embassy was an appropriate symbol for the indigenous fight when it was set up in 1972 in an appeal for land rights.
"But quite frankly it is irrelevant to the mainstream of Aboriginal people today and it has been for the last 20 years," he said.
Indigenous social justice commissioner Mick Gooda agreed.
"Back in 1970s we needed this sort of stuff to raise the issue, but the issue is fairly and squarely on the agenda."
"Vent your frustrations and your anger, but do it in a peaceful way," he said in a message to protesters.
"Do it in a way that befits Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."
But Mr McMurtrie insists Mr Abbott's words incited the afternoon's events.
"He made the comments in an inciteful and smug manner in Sydney and then flies several hundred kilometres to come down and sit 100 metres from us," he said.
"It's akin to us going to the cenotaph on Anzac Day and asking you to pull that down."
Meanwhile, protesters have offered to return Ms Gillard's right blue wedge heeled shoe as a gesture of friendship.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy's Facebook page originally posted the stolen shoe would be returned in exchange for stolen land.
"Julia will be eligible to make a shoe title claim which will take approximately 20 years," it said.
"This will be dependant on Julia being able to show continuous connection with the shoe."
Ms Gillard is in Melbourne on Friday to present some more national emergency medals.
