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| Julia Gillard calls leadership ballot in bid to head off Rudd challenge | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Three months out from a general election and in the last sitting week of parliament, Australia's embattled prime minister, Julia Gillard, is facing yet another bid to replace her with Kevin Rudd. | |
| Gillard announced that a ballot for leadership of the governing Labor party, and therefore the prime ministership, will be held at 7pm on Wednesday. Australia's first female PM made the dramatic move in a bid to head off Rudd backers who had started gathering signatures on a petition to force the matter to a vote. | |
| It follows months of speculation about her leadership and several dire opinion polls, the results of which, if repeated on election day in September, would deliver a crushing defeat to the governing Labor party. The petition, being circulated by supporters of Kevin Rudd - the man she ousted as prime minister three years ago this week – called for a special meeting of Labor parliamentarians, known as the caucus, where a leadership ballot could take place. There have been weeks of intensive leadership speculation during which Rudd supporters have openly campaigned against the prime minister. Throughout, Gillard has made it clear that she will not stand down. While the petition was being circulated, she answered questions in parliament. "I can assure the Australian people that as the prime minister I am getting on the job," she told MPs. Thirty-five signatures out of a caucus of 102 are needed on the petition to force a meeting. As rumblings about the petition were building on a dramatic sitting day of parliament, Gillard brought the matter to a head by announcing the ballot and declaring that whoever lost – herself or Rudd – should quit parliament. She derided the petition as being like the Loch Ness monster: no one was sure whether they had seen it. | |
| "I haven't seen this petition. Call me old-fashioned but the way in which these things are normally done is a challenger approaches the leader of the Labor party and asks them to call a ballot for the leadership, they shake hands, and then a ballot is held," she told Sky News Australia. | |
| "That hasn't happened." | |
| For observers of Australian politics it is a case of deja vu all over again, with leadership tension dogging Gillard – the country's first female prime minister - for the entire duration of this hung parliament. In February 2012 Kevin Rudd was resoundingly defeated by Gillard 71 to 31 in a caucus ballot and went to the backbench. In March this year Gillard called another leadership "spill" – effectively declaring her role and the office of prime minister open – after one of her most senior cabinet ministers withdrew his support and called for the party to clear the air over leadership once and for all. | |
| But instead of challenging Rudd astounded observers by refusing to run against her. Ten minutes before the vote was due to take place Rudd said the only way he would return as prime minister was if an overwhelming majority of Labor party MPs drafted him and if the position was vacant. Neither condition had been met. Despite then asserting that he could not see any circumstances in which he would lead the Labor party in the future, his supporters continued to brief against Gillard and the soap opera continued, culminating in Wednesday's petition. It's not clear if or when a vote will actually take place. If it does and there is a change of leadership, a number of options would then arise, including the possibility of an early election if the independent MPs who hold the balance of power in parliament refuse to support a new Labor prime minister. | But instead of challenging Rudd astounded observers by refusing to run against her. Ten minutes before the vote was due to take place Rudd said the only way he would return as prime minister was if an overwhelming majority of Labor party MPs drafted him and if the position was vacant. Neither condition had been met. Despite then asserting that he could not see any circumstances in which he would lead the Labor party in the future, his supporters continued to brief against Gillard and the soap opera continued, culminating in Wednesday's petition. It's not clear if or when a vote will actually take place. If it does and there is a change of leadership, a number of options would then arise, including the possibility of an early election if the independent MPs who hold the balance of power in parliament refuse to support a new Labor prime minister. |
| Rudd himself has not declared whether he will mount a challenge – he is due to travel to China on Friday. | |
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