AUSTRALIAN PRIME minister Kevin Rudd stood down early this morning before a leadership ballot could be held, leaving his deputy Julia Gillard to become Australia’s first female prime minister.
The government was in disarray yesterday when Mr Rudd was challenged for leadership of the ruling Labor Party by Ms Gillard.
At about 10.30pm Mr Rudd announced that the Labor caucus would vote on the party and government leadership today.
“Earlier this evening Julia Gillard requested a ballot for the leadership. I will be writing to the secretary of caucus to convene a special meeting at 9am tomorrow morning,” he said. “It’s important for these matters to be resolved quickly.”
Mr Rudd said he was proud of his record in government and of keeping Australia out of recession.
“I was elected to do a job . . . I intend to continue doing that job. I was elected by the people of Australia to do a job. I was not elected by the factional leaders of the Labor Party.”
Mr Rudd said he had lost the support of some party members in recent weeks. “It has become apparent to me in the course of the last period of time . . . that a number of factional leaders in the Labor Party no longer support my leadership. That is why it is imperative this matter be resolved.
“I believe I am quite capable of winning this ballot tomorrow. It’s far better for these things are done quickly [sic] rather than being strung out over a period of time.”
A dramatic night in Canberra began when it emerged that the Australian Workers’ Union, a key Labor-affiliated union, had withdrawn support for Mr Rudd.
AWU leader Paul Howes said the union had acted because of recent polling which showed that the Liberal-National coalition parties could win the next election, resulting in the conservative Tony Abbott becoming prime minister within months.
“An Abbott prime ministership would be bad for the environment and bad for working people,” said Mr Howes. “The union’s position is that we’re supporting her [Julia Gillard’s] leadership. This is pretty unprecedented. The situation we’re in is pretty dire,” he said.
Ms Gillard was said to have been angered yesterday by reports that Mr Rudd had got his chief-of-staff to poll MPs on their loyalty to him and whether there were moves to replace him.