There are times when our own ponderous, slow election process and the deliberate difficulty in removing anyone from Federal elected office seems insane. But, there are also times when the rapidity of the parliamentary system seems insane as well.
Is this process in response to broad loss of confidence among the people of Australia, or is it more of a backroom infighting situation? The alignments of various groups and interests don’t always fit well with our expectations of what constitutes conservative or liberal governance, and the usage of the terms themselves is often inverted from our perspective, too, so we’re needing translation from a native, lol.
In this case, it’s in direct response to a loss of confidence by the voters of Australia. Labor has decided Rudd was unelectable.
It’s not always the case, but this one is based squarely on the fact that Rudd is no longer trusted by those who elected the Labor government.
That is a good question. I would say that backroom infighting is the main factor. The ALP - Aust's social democratic party has always been particularly corrupt and dominated in a secret way by union groups. It was these unionists who decided they had enough of Rudd, so he was out.
Broad loss of confidence is also evident, as Rudd had plunged in opinion polls, and an election is drawing near. But if he still had the backing of those powerbrokers, he would not have had a problem retaining leadership. How he fell out with them is all about personal style and his own dictatorial ways.