Welsh-born lawyer Julia Gillard became Australia’s first woman prime minister yesterday after the once hugely popular prime minister Kevin Rudd fell to a party coup less than three years after taking office.
The tough, flame-haired Gillard was elected unopposed in a shock Labor Party ballot called just hours earlier, saying she could not “sit idly by” as public and factional support swung dramatically away from the former leader.
“I asked my colleagues to make a leadership change because I believe that a good government was losing its way … and at risk at the next election,” Gillard said. “I was not going to sit idly by.”
Gillard, 48, pledged to seek a popular mandate within months and set about reversing the issues that sank Rudd by pursuing a dropped carbon trading scheme and urging mining chiefs to cancel a TV campaign against a planned new tax.
The plea drew immediate dividends as BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, cancelled its TV ads as a “sign of good faith.”
Yesterday’s quickfire developments cemented a remarkable rise for the unmarried Gillard, who battled through the party ranks, and sneers over her lack of children and strong Australian accent, to become Labor’s leading light.
However, analysts raised questions over the manner of her ascension, which came through shady backroom deals hatched by political power-brokers and ended in a hasty dismissal for Rudd, elected by a landslide in 2007.
Rumblings of a leadership change surfaced only late on Wednesday, when Rudd emerged from talks with Gillard to announce the surprise parliamentary party vote yesterday.
Analysts were stunned at the fall from grace of Rudd, who plummeted from record support levels to become the first Australian prime minister deposed in office since Labor’s Paul Keating unseated Bob Hawke in 1991.
The bookish, center-left technocrat rode high in the polls after ousting conservative Australian prime minister John Howard and only slumped in recent months after shelving the carbon trading scheme and suggesting the unpopular mining tax.
Rudd’s policy bumps and somewhat stiff persona gave rise to a public image of being long on rhetoric and short on real accomplishments, as well as something of a control freak.
An emotional Rudd, 52, repeatedly paused to choke back tears as he faced the press in Canberra flanked by his family.
“I was elected by the Australian people as prime minister of this country to bring back a fair go for all Australians, and I have given my absolute best to do that,” Rudd said.
“What I’m less proud of is the fact that I have now blubbered,” he said.
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