Posted on 06/23/2010 6:19:53 AM PDT by naturalman1975
KEVIN Rudd has called a leadership showdown with Julia Gillard tomorrow morning after conceding he had lost the support of key Labor figures.
After a night of talks with the Deputy Prime Minister, a defiant Prime Minister fronted a press conference at Parliament House about 10.30pm.
He said he was “quite capable of winning this ballot tomorrow” at 9am.
The leadership ballot comes after a series of Newspolls showing Mr Rudd in trouble in key marginals and opposition leader Tony Abbott narrowing the gap as preferred prime minister.
Mr Rudd conceded that a number of factional leaders no longer supported his leadership, and said it was important that the leadership issue was “resolved as a matter of urgency”.
“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,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
What are the odds of a change in government?
The government itself won’t change tomorrow whatever happens - it will simply mean the current Deputy Prime Minister becomes Prime Minister.
It’s the Labor party (who hold government) electing their own leader - and consequently the Prime Minister.
I can’t even guess at the odds. Because it’s an internal party matter, it’s hard for those outside to make a judgement.
Thanks for the clarification. I only had time to skim the first bit of the article. Is this a manoeuver intended to save Labour’s miserable backside?
Yes.
Kevin Rudd is unpopular. Some of his party hope Julia Gillard would be less unpopular.
Is this the kind of thing that could cause the opposition parties to demand a general election...citing "instability"..."lack of confidence",etc?
They haven’t got the numbers to force a vote of no confidence.
But honestly - if Julia Gillard is elected, we want her to have some time in office before the election.
At the moment, most people think she’s pretty moderate - she’s had to work within Rudd’s rules, and her primary ministerial responsibility has been education, where Australian voters tend to tolerate left wing ideas more.
She’s actually a former Communist (she was a member of a hard left group as late as 2002), far more to the left than most people probably realise right now.
I actually quite like her in a lot of ways - she’s hard working, honest, and dedicated to this country. I just think she’s wrong - really wrong - and I think most voters will agree.
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