Australia’s Night of Political Turmoil: Prime Minister Julia Gillard Ousted by Former PM Kevin Rudd. But It’s Not Over Yet.

By Stephen Cook – June 26, 2013

Australia’s first female Prime Minister. Julia Gillard, has been voted out of office by her own party tonight (Australian time).

And, in an incredible turn of events this evening in Australia’s capital, Canberra, the man Ms Gillard ousted some three years ago – former PM Kevin Rudd – is the man who has been chosen to step back into the role.

Yet all of this has happened without a single vote from the general Australian population.

So how did this happen? And all in the space of an adrenaline-filled three hours, most of which was witnessed with intrigue, via wall-to-wall coverage on every television network here tonight?

The way Australian politics works is that the governing party can decide its leader. That leader becomes Prime Minister. But a Prime Minister can be replaced during his or her term if his or her party deems it.

This is how Kevin Rudd was deposed almost three years ago to the day. His polling had slumped and his party was worried that he wouldn’t win the next election.

So they tapped him on the shoulder and asked ‘KRudd’, as he is known, to step aside.

Julia Gillard was then elected by her party (the Australian Labor Party) as leader and thus, mid-term, became the new Prime Minister.

And Australia’s historic first woman PM.

At that time, even though the date for an election was some months away – and she was in a seemingly unlose-able position – she quickly, some say mistakenly, called a sudden election.

This was followed by a poorly managed campaign; de-stabilsed at times by some within her own party.

She didn’t win that election outright.

But under the rules of our constitution, as her party was the incumbent, she received the first opportunity to cobble together a minority government. She did this by gathering the support of some key independents.

I remember wondering at the time how she managed to do this. Many said it was her skilful negotiation skills. I’ve often wondered if she had the (behind-the-scenes) backing of the powerful mining companies… After all, one of Kevin Rudd’s seeming downfalls was his commitment to seriously taxing the mining multi-nationals. And they, in turn, mounted a very strong campaign against him.

Julia, on the other hand,  had a much softer approach; one that led to a newly configured mining tax.

(I should add that this watered-down tax has seen only a paltry amount of taxes coming in from those billionaires who pilfer our natural resources and make themselves and their shareholders very rich, while the land and the locals are disregarded.)

Nevertheless, she has held onto power since and, as they say in Australia, ‘toughed it out’ – despite attacks from all sides. And a couple of foiled challenges to her leadership. Both of which featured Kevin Rudd.

Over recent weeks her public image has faltered – badly. With an election coming (selected by Ms Gillard for September 14) the polls showed, week after week, that the Australian people weren’t going to vote for her.

And so the talk of leadership challenges began again. And continued, day after day.

Then, at 4.30pm this afternoon, after a week of strong rumors that her polling was so low she was in an un-winnable election position, there were stories that a petition was being circulated within her own party seeking that she step down.

Instead, she immediately appeared on television, calling for a leadership vote for 7pm tonight our time; declaring that whoever lost the vote tonight should resign from parliament. Her thinking was no doubt that the quicker this party vote occurred, the less chance anyone else would have in gathering numbers against her.

Then, at 5.15pm Kevin Rudd came on TV and said he was stepping up to challenge. He also agreed that if he lost the vote he would leave Parliament.

So, either way, a former Prime Minister was going to leave parliament tonight. It was a duel to the political end.

As Australian TV news went into total overdrive – and normally programming was abandoned by all -  the cameras captured the long wait while the party caucus voted in a secret ballot.

After about an hour, Kevin Rudd won the vote 57-45. A new deputy was elected. Ministers loyal to Gillard resigned.

Kevin Rudd is, however, not yet our new Prime-Minister. He still has to be sworn in by our Governor-General – but only after Ms Gillard tenders her resignation as PM (and, as per her own directive, she will also leave parliament altogether).

But it won’t be over even then.

After Mr Rudd is sworn in, he could likely face a vote of confidence in the Australian parliament tomorrow – its last day of sitting before what will be our next public election. This is because some of the independents who supported Ms Gillard have said they may not support him.

He could lose that vote of confidence or he may gain the support of other independents. No one knows.

Either way, he faces a public election within the next three months.

He also faces pulling together a cabinet where ministers loyal to Ms Gillard continue to resign by the minute. Some are quitting politics altogether.

So even after tonight’s turmoil, the position of Prime Minister of Australia remains as up-in-the-air as ever.

It all depends on what tomorrow holds.

Ah, well, and they call us a civilised democratic nation…

]]>

]]>