Australia’s ruling Labor Party has dumped Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister and replaced hiim with Julia Gillard — Australia’s first woman Prime Minister:
Julia Gillard has been sworn in as Australia’s first female prime minister after a surprise leadership vote in the ruling Labor Party ousted Kevin Rudd.
Mr Rudd chose not to take part in the ballot knowing he would suffer an embarrassing defeat to his deputy.
Ms Gillard said she believed “a good government was losing its way” and vowed to revive Labor ahead of a general election expected in October.
The party has suffered a sharp drop in support in opinion polls this year.
A turn-around on a carbon trading scheme and a wrangle over a controversial mining tax led to a sharp slide in approval ratings for Mr Rudd’s government.
For Australia’s ABC’s take on it go HERE.
And here’s Asian Correspondent’s extensive take on the story:
Political parties around the world often see moves to try and dump or force out prominent officials if they feel their political fortunes are seriously stake and there is a viable alternative. Here in the United States, we had the epic battles between LBJ and Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and there are always rumblings about a leader being challenged if the polls go down far enough. The latest rumblings in the U.S. have come from conservatives indulging in perhaps wishful thinking that Hillary Clinton will challenge Barack Obama in 2012. That reflects a wish that the Democrats would self-destruct more than reality.
Because when top leaders are challenged the party with the turmoil often paid a price. But in Australia’s case, this “political mugging” seemed to be handled smoothly.
Indeed: Gillard is now surging in the polls:
Jullia Gillard has put Labor into an election-winning position a day after becoming our first female PM.
The first opinion poll since Ms Gillard toppled Kevin Rudd also reveals she is more popular and trusted than Tony Abbott.
An exclusive Galaxy Poll for the Herald Sun shows Ms Gillard has lifted Labor’s primary vote to 41 per cent. The ALP also leads the Coalition 52-48 on two-party preferred terms.
Voters easily prefer Ms Gillard on who would make a better PM, with 58 per cent compared with 32 per cent for Mr Abbott.
The nationwide poll of 800 people also found more people would rather have a beer with her than Mr Abbott.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.