Aussie Foreign Minister Resigns

[DBAHO]

For anyone who follows our political climate, the next week is going to be very interesting indeed. I'm as Anti - Gilliard as you can be;

 

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned on Wednesday amid growing speculation that he and his backers in Parliament were seeking to topple Prime Minister Julia Gillard and regain for him the country’s leadership role.

 

Mr. Rudd, who was displaced as prime minister by Ms. Gillard in a 2010 party coup, told reporters in Washington, where he was on an official visit, that he had lost his leader’s support and could no longer continue to serve in her cabinet.

 

“I cannot continue to serve as foreign minister if I do not have the prime minister’s support and so I have decided to do the honorable thing and the honorable thing is to resign,” he said early on Wednesday.

 

Tensions between the pair over Mr. Rudd’s ouster and his possible leadership ambitions have been simmering and his resignation is unlikely to quash the rumors of his backroom jockeying for her job that have been roiling the Australian media for the past week.

 

Mr. Rudd said that he would decide on his future moves after consulting with his family when he returns to Australia on Thursday.

 

On Tuesday, Ms. Gillard insisted that she continued to enjoy the support of the majority of her governing Labor Party.

 

“I’m getting on with the job with the strong support of my caucus colleagues,” Ms. Gillard told reporters in the capital, Canberra. “I’m getting on with my job. Kevin Rudd’s getting on with his.”

 

Mr. Rudd also had dismissed the issue when questioned about the subject by reporters on Monday while attending a gathering of the Group of 20 foreign ministers in Mexico.

 

The Tuesday edition of The Australian devoted nearly six pages to the affair, including a front-page story and a scathing editorial that accused both Ms. Gillard and Mr. Rudd of failing to exhibit leadership qualities.

 

The left-leaning Sydney Morning Herald, meanwhile, reported that pro-Rudd members of Parliament had been circulating a petition calling for a Labor Party leadership ballot as early as next week.

 

At least 35 of the 103 Labor lawmakers in Parliament would have to sign on to the petition to force a leadership vote.

 

It remains unclear how much support Mr. Rudd actually has within the party, however, which is one possible reason his supporters have not yet pushed for a ballot.

 

Mr. Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat who led his party back into power in 2007, is widely derided within the Labor leadership for what has often been described as an autocratic leadership style.

 

But his stunning removal as prime minister in 2010 angered many, and the Australian public continues to display a deep ambivalence toward Ms. Gillard, despite significant legislative successes and strong economic growth under her stewardship.

 

Fears within the party that she is now simply too unpopular to return Labor to power in elections scheduled for August of next year seem to be playing a strong role in the current dispute.

 

The latest data released by the Nielsen polling agency earlier this month indicated that 57 percent of voters would prefer Mr. Rudd as Labor leader, while 35 percent would choose Ms. Gillard.

 

That comes as Labor has fallen behind the main opposition coalition by 53 percent to 47 percent.

 

The opposition leader, Tony Abbott, whose poll numbers have also labored in the doldrums despite the growing popularity of his coalition, has been an unrelenting critic of Ms. Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister.

 

He chimed in on the unfolding political drama on Tuesday, calling it “a poisonous soap opera.”

 

“What I want to see are better policies in Canberra, more stable government in Canberra and I doubt this hopelessly divided and dysfunctional government can provide that,” he was quoted as saying in The Australian. “I think it’s beyond repair.”