LIVE: Labor leadership spill
Labor is holding a ballot for the party leadership at 4.30 this afternoon. Watch live analysis here.
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- Simon Crean's opening statement to the media
- The Pulse Live: Stephanie Peatling blogs live from Parliament
- Jacqueline Maley: Defiant PM: take your best shot
Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan have been elected unopposed as Prime Minister and deputy at a meeting of the Labor caucus after a spill was called and they were the only nominees.
Former Labor leader Kevin Rudd refused to run for the leadership of the party at the caucus meeting on Thursday afternoon.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard arrives with her supporters for the caucus meeting. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Labor spokesman Chris Hayes said Ms Gillard was the only candidate for the leadership and Mr Swan was the only candidate for the deputy leadership when the positions were declared vacant.
''Both were were duly elected unopposed and unanimously by the parliamentary caucus,'' he said.
Mr Hayes said the incident had caused an ''emotional drain on members and senators'' and the clear outcome would allow the party to put aside the ''instability''.
Kevin Rudd arrives for the caucus meeting... "I take my word seriously." Photo: Andrew Meares
About 10 minutes before the caucus meeting, Mr Rudd said he would honour his previous commitment not to challenge for the Labor leadership unless he was drafted to the role.
''Others treat such commitments lightly. I do not,'' he said.
Mr Rudd said he had previously made it clear that the only circumstance in which he would consider a return to the leadership would be if he was drafted by a significant majority and the position was vacant.
Independent MPs Andrew Wilkie, Craig Thomson, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor talk during the motion of no confidence during question time. Photo: Andrew Meares
''I'm here to inform you that these circumstances do not exist and therefore in the absence of any such draft . . . I will be adhering absolutely to the commitment I gave to the Australian people and my parliamentary colleagues,'' he said.
Mr Rudd said it was a ''difficult'' day for the party, adding: ''I take my word seriously.''
Transport Minister Anthony Albanese, a supporter of Mr Rudd, said on Thursday afternoon that the former prime minister had acted in the party's interest in honouring his word not to challenge.
Labor frontbencher Simon Crean announces he has asked Julia Gillard for a spill of the party leadership. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
''I have been pretty consistent in terms of my views. I re-state my view again that I will never support a spill motion against a sitting Labor prime minister,'' Mr Albanese told reporters.
''Julia Gillard will remain Prime Minister after this meeting,'' Mr Albanese said.
PM calls leadership spill
Earlier on Thursday before question time, Ms Gillard heeded ALP frontbencher Simon Crean's call for a spill of the Labor leadership.
''For the information of the House I have determined that there will be a ballot for the leadership and deputy leadership of the Labor party at 4.30pm (Melbourne/Sydney time). In the meantime, take your best shot.''
Ms Gillard said Mr Albanese would answer questions in question time in Mr Crean's portfolio after the veteran Labor MP was sacked from his portfolio of Arts and Regional Australia. Mr Crean's office later confirmed he had been sacked from his ministerial duties after his intervention.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Crean asked the Prime Minister to call a spill of the Labor leadership.
Rudd-backers had already prepared a petition calling for a spill before Ms Gillard responded by calling on the fight.
Mr Swan stood by Ms Gillard ahead of the ballot, tweeting: "As I said yesterday, @JuliaGillard is as tough as they make them- she'll win today & on 14 Sept because she’s got the reforms for the future."
Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and Tasmanian MP Dick Adams, both thought to be supporters of Mr Rudd, were absent from the caucus meeting.
Abbott fires up in question time
In question time, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott took aim asking: ''Does the Prime Minister agree with former prime minister Bob Hawke that if you can't govern yourselves, you can't govern the country?''
Ms Gillard replied: ''I certainly believe that as a government you've got to keep your focus on the things that matter to the Australian people and that's where my focus is.''
Mr Abbott then sought to move a motion that the House of Representatives had no confidence in the Prime Minister.
In seeking to suspend standing orders to move a motion of no confidence, Mr Abbott said Australia had been let down by an ''incompetent'' government that got worse by the hour.
''Not only does the Coalition have no confidence in this Prime Minister but plainly senior members of her own government no longer have confidence in this Prime Minister,'' Mr Abbott said.
Mr Abbott described Mr Crean as a ''decent, honourable man'' who had made a ''remarkable'' statement about the state of the Labor party.
He said: ''This is a government which has lost its way; not a good government that has lost its way but a very poor government that has lost its way.''
In a stark message to Ms Gillard, Mr Abbott declared across the dispatch box: ''Can I say to our current Prime Minister. For your party's good, you should go, for our country's good you should go. You should go.''
In a reference to the media reforms that had been killed off, Mr Abbott congratulated the crossbench MPs ''for standing up for the sacred principles of free speech on which our democracy depends''.
''There has been policy failure after policy failure,'' he said.
Mr Abbott said it was time to give the Australian people a chance to choose the government.
''The Labor Party of which it was once said there was a light on the hill, working for the betterment of mankind, not just here but wherever we can lend a helping hand, that once great political party is now reduced to being a life support system, a political life support system for just one person, the current Prime Minister,'' he said.
Ms Gillard hit back at the opposition describing Mr Abbott's and Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop's speeches as reflecting ''the same negative dummy spit that they've been engaged in since the 2010 election''.
Ms Gillard said Mr Abbott had the opportunity to outline a vision to the Australian people but he had failed and instead responded ''with the only thing he knows how to do - that is negativity, bitterness and the politics of personal assault''.
''Their lack of vision, the inability in opposition to come up with any costed, credible policies for the nation condemns them to where they should be and that is the opposition benches,'' she said.
Ms Gillard stressed the strength of the Australian economy and outlined her achievements, including in the education field.
''Let me assure the Leader of the Opposition we are not done yet; we have more to do to bring fairness and opportunity in our country.''
Ms Gillard said her party had always worked to ensure economic benefits were spread across the nation.
''It's what it's done under my prime ministership and it is what it will do under my prime ministership from this day forward,'' she said.
''We will fight and fight and fight the Leader of the Opposition's campaign to take opportunity away from families, to visit cutbacks on their heads . . .
''We will fight and fight and fight that and when the election is held in September we will prevail in that election because the choice will be so clear."
Mr Abbott's bid to suspend standing orders failed. The motion passed 73 votes to 71, but it would have required an absolute majority (76) to succeed.
'Something needs to be done'
During Mr Crean's press conference earlier in the day he said: "Something needs to be done to break this deadlock . . . for once and for all.''
''I am asking her to call a spill of all leadership positions,'' Mr Crean told journalists in Canberra. ''I will not be standing for the leader. I will be putting myself forward in the leadership team for the deputy leader.''
Mr Crean, who is the Arts and Regional Australia Minister, said Mr Rudd had no alternative but to stand for the leadership. He said he would be supporting Mr Rudd.
To win a ballot, Mr Rudd needs a majority of votes in the 102-member caucus. Last February, he could only muster just 31 votes to Julia Gillard's 71.
He said if Ms Gillard was elected in a leadership ballot he would not contest the ballot for deputy and would resign from the cabinet.
Asked if Mr Rudd had enough support to become leader, Mr Crean said: ''I wouldn't be doing this if I did not believe there was the mood and the need for change within the party.''
Mr Crean said he had not spoken to Mr Rudd in the past 48 hours. He said he had spoken to Mr Rudd over a long period of time and believed Mr Rudd could be a ''changed Kevin'', ''a more disciplined
asset''.
Mr Crean reaffirmed that he had concerns about the way in which the former Rudd government was run, but he believed Mr Rudd could change.
''That's a discussion I've continued to have with him. I'm satisfied that this can change but I want to be there to ensure it is changed,'' he said.
Asked whether the September 14 election date was shaky, Mr Crean said he believed the government should run full term.
''I do not believe the position we find ourselves in the polls for example is just due to destabilisation [by the Rudd forces],'' he said.
''I think it is true a number of decision which obviously in hindsight should have been approached differently.
''There is no ticket between me and Kevin. I think he has another view as to who his deputy should be. I disagree with that view,'' Mr Crean said.
He said if the caucus wanted to see a ''change of leadership, not just a change of leader'' they should support him for deputy.
After Mr Rudd refused to contest the leadership, Mr Albanese said if Mr Crean nominated for deputy leader, he would vote for Treasurer Wayne Swan.
''It seems to me the party . . . is in a stalemate position,'' he said. ''Something must be done to resolve this issue once and for all.''
''We can't win from the position we're in in the polls,'' he said. But he said Labor's woes were not only about leadership.
''People have got to believe that we have conviction. What we have to do is to take people with us. That means being prepared to argue the case.''
He said the caucus needed to act ''expeditiously, decisively and conclusively''.
''I am urging Mr Rudd to put his name forward in the interests of breaking the deadlock.''
''We've got to reclaim the success of the Labor mantle. What I am challenging the party to do is to look beyond the prism of the two individuals.
''Some will say this is just rewarding the destabilisers . . . but I do not believe that the position we find ourselves in in the polls is just due to destabilisation.''
He said the party's poor standing was partly due to ''a number of decisions'', which he said had been approached poorly. He would not detail these.
He said his decision had been ''very difficult''. He said colleagues had urged him to nominate for leader but he had resisted these calls.
Mr Crean finished his media conference by declaring: ''I'm going to be in question time at two o'clock as I'm required to be.''
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"I think I know what her response will be, I urge her to reconsider that."
He said if she did not reconsider the caucus should "act in accordance
with its rules"
He said if Ms Gillard was elected in a leadership ballot he would not
contest the ballot for deputy and would resign from the cabinet.
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