CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has dared her political rival, former foreign minister Kevin Rudd, to challenge her in a leadership vote next week, hoping to end infighting that threatens to sink the minority government and its reform agenda.
Gillard called on Thursday for the vote to be held by ruling-party lawmakers next Monday, gambling that a victory for her would silence Rudd whom she accused of trying to destabilise her unpopular government and regain the top job.
The Gillard-Rudd rivalry has been brewing since she replaced him as prime minister in a late-night coup in 2010. It burst into the open on Wednesday when Rudd quit as foreign minister while on a trip to Washington, saying he could no longer work with Gillard and that she could not win the next election, due next year.
‘Following Kevin Rudd’s resignation on Thursday, I have formed this view that we need a leadership ballot in order to settle this question once and for all,’ Gillard told reporters, keeping composed and trying to contrast Rudd as a ‘chaotic’ leader.
‘For far too long, we have seen squabbling within the Labor Party. Australians are rightly sick of this, and they want it brought to an end,’ she said. Gillard said she expected Rudd to stand for the leadership, though he had yet to declare whether he would contest.
Most analysts believe, however, that any changes would not save the party from defeat at the polls.
‘Labor is going to lose the next election. The current government can’t get itself out of the doldrums and this is likely to drag on for the rest of the year,’ Sydney University political analyst Peter Chen said.
‘If Labor changes to Kevin Rudd, they will find his support is much softer than people think,’ he said, adding that if Rudd lost the vote, he would remain a divisive and destabilising figure within the government.
A Monday vote limits Rudd’s ability to build sufficient support to replace Gillard. Rudd is travelling back to Australia from Washington, where he was on an official visit when he suddenly quit as foreign minister.
‘I’m very pleased and encouraged by the amount of positive support and encouragement of me to contest the leadership of the Labor Party,’ he said in a televised news conference from Washington before boarding a flight home.
Opinion polls show Rudd remains more popular with voters but is not well liked by party MPs, who select their leader. Gillard is backed by most of them, including most senior cabinet members, making it unlikely Rudd can mount a successful challenge. (Reuters)