In very rapid developments tonight, the recent schism between Julia Gillard, Australia's first female PM and the man she deposed, Kevin Rudd has dramatically come out into the open. Rudd has resigned as Foreign Minister and Gillard has called a meeting of Labor caucus to decide on the leadership in a vote of parliamentary party members on Monday. The real winners of course will be the Opposition (Liberal Party) who can portray Labor as a House Divided.

With a minority government formed by PM Gillard getting conservative independents to support her over a conservative Abbott, to pass great numbers of bills, get support of the Greens in the senate to help get bills through while trying to hold off a challenge from a vengeful psychopath, I think she should become a juggler.

"The real winners of course will be the Opposition (Liberal Party) who can portray Labor as a House Divided."

Ain't that the truth! I'm not a politically minded person and I'll admit that I am not knowledgeable enough about politics to argue with anyone about it, but I really feel that Julia Gillard is not to be trusted and that what she did to Kevin Rudd in 2010 was unethical and disloyal. Personally, I would vote for Rudd over Gillard any day, but I'd rather see a third person in power and both of them out! However, I doubt if there's anybody in the Labour party that's fit to rule. Not confident the Liberals have anyone suitable either.

It would be nice if politicians had a longer-term view - focussing on doing what's best for the country rather than what will win them the next election. I'd like to think that the former approach *would* win them an election, but I know that isn't the case.

This is so frustrating...I voted for the local candidate who I thought would be best for my electorate. Fat chance of getting anything done with the leadership uncertainty hanging over the entire political system. I guess we just wait until Monday, see who we end up with, and hope they can get on with it.

*exasperated outburst*

I feel exactly the same exasperation elbereth. But what's the solution? Pay the pollies more? Perhaps that might improve the overall talent pool of our parliamentarians. But then we're still stuck with the same short term fixes and pork-barrelling we see from both sides of politics. I still adhere strongly to the (probably misquoted) line about democracy being the worst form of government, apart from all the others. (Who said that btw?)

Perhaps if I stick my head in the sand for long enough, things will be much better when I re-emerge...

That would have been the most consumate pollie of all, Churchill.

I have no idea what the upcoming showdown will present, but hopefully once it is over, they will both go back to their corners and let it rest. Rudd has promised that if he loses, he will not challenge again. He also promised that if he wins, there will be no repercussions against those that voted against him. If anyone believes either of these statements, they are very naive.

Gillard got to the top job in a nasty (but not unusual) way, and has made some major stuff-ups (Carbon Tax, anyone?), but allegedly has the numbers to survive. There are 103 politicians voting- who knows how many backroom deals are happening?

Abbott and Bob Brown seem to be having lots of fun stirring the pot, too. It would be nice if we could someday get a government that can actually govern, instead of the childish antics that we see lately, eh?

I wouldn't care if it was a 3ft tall purple Martian with green polka dots and zebra striped antennae running the country if it was going well. Whilst it's fun watching the machinations to a certain extent I'm looking forward to Monday's ballot being the end of this particular silly season!

Julia Gillard has more time to regain some traction with the voting public of Australia after resoundingly beating Kevin Rudd 71-31 in this morning's leadership vote of the Labor caucus. This means Ms Gillard continues as Australia's PM until the next federal election, or there's another leadership challenge (unlikely) or the fragile coalition with the independents fails.... If nothing else, we're living in "interesting times"!

ugh. I just can not stand the woman's voice and was hoping Rudd would win just so I could watch the news again!
But they got rid of Rudd for a reason, and while I think Labor would have a better chance with RUdd at the next election I think they probably did the right thing.

I heard Graham Richardson on the radio this am. He thinks that if the ALP's polls don't improve within about 6 months there will be another challenge by someone as the ALP will want a leader who has a chance at winning the next election. Oh goody! We could go through all this again in a few months with a bit of luck.