Julia Gillard becomes new Australian PM
Julia Gillard becomes new Australian PM
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NEXT PM: Julia Gillard challenged Kevin Rudd for the Australian leadership - and won.
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STOOD DOWN: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will hand over the leadership reins to Julia Gillard.
Julia Gillard is to become Australia's first female prime minister after Kevin Rudd stood down as Labor leader at a caucus meeting this morning.
Ms Gillard, not Mr Rudd, will now decide when to lead her party into the next election.
It is understood Mr Rudd stood aside to avoid a humiliating defeat. The new Deputy Prime Minister is Wayne Swan.
Just a year ago, Mr Rudd rivalled Bob Hawke as Australia's most popular leader. But he now joins Mr Hawke as the only other Labor prime minister dumped by his party.
Mr Rudd had decided to fight to the death after refusing to step aside last night for Ms Gillard.
Ms Gillard, however, was believed to have to the numbers before going into this morning's ballot, which was not held. She also had the backing of the powerful Australian Workers Union.
A series of policy failures, poor polls and the decision to go to war with the mining industry have all contributed to Mr Rudd's plunging fortunes among his colleagues.
The Coalition fears a change to Ms Gillard. Although she bears responsibility for many of the government's poor decisions, including shelving the emissions trading scheme and the school buildings program, she would be harder to beat than Mr Rudd.
The push to oust Mr Rudd was driven by the Right faction in Victoria and South Australia.
The entire national Right, including the NSW Right and its kingmaker Mark Arbib, had last night swung behind Ms Gillard, as had the Victorian Left, led by Kim Carr, who installed Mr Rudd.
The hard Left was left doing the numbers for Mr Rudd.
After a three-hour crisis meeting in his office last night with Ms Gillard and the veteran fixer John Faulkner, Mr Rudd held a media conference and said he would fight.
"I was elected by the people of Australia as the Prime Minister of Australia," he said.
"I was elected to do a job and I intend doing that job."
But he had acknowledged that he was abandoned by most of the factional powerbrokers.
Mr Rudd had attempted to salvage votes by promising to bring a speedy conclusion to the mining tax saga and initiate a timetable to implement an emissions trading scheme.
After being pressured to take a hard line against asylum seekers, he baulked, saying he would not engage in a race to the right.