Australia’s ex-premier wins back party helm

Kevin Rudd, (left) Australia’s former premier, walks with politician Anthony Albanese on Wednesday after a Labor Party leadership ballot in Canberra that ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard as head of the party.
Kevin Rudd, (left) Australia’s former premier, walks with politician Anthony Albanese on Wednesday after a Labor Party leadership ballot in Canberra that ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard as head of the party.

SYDNEY - Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday pulled off a political comeback, ousting in a party vote Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the woman who replaced him as leader of the Labor Party in a 2010 party coup.

Rudd was sworn in today, three years and three days after he was ousted from the job, after Gillard called the surprise vote to head off a challenge from Rudd’s backers.

Gillard became Australia’s first female prime minister in 2010. Rudd was derided during his tenure for an authoritarian leadership style. But Gillard has seen her poll ratings plummet since announcing in January, unusually early, that federal elections would be held in September.

Late Wednesday afternoon, a Labor parliamentarian Chris Hayes announced that Rudd had won the party’s backing in a nearly hour long session.

“It is Kevin Rudd 57 votes, Julia Gillard 45 votes,” he said.

Governor-General Quentin Bryce commissioned Rudd within half an hour of Parliament resuming for what is likely to be its last day before elections.

“I will do my absolute best,” Rudd told Bryce, whom he appointed governor-general when he was last prime minister.

Anthony Albanese was sworn in as deputy prime minister, and Chris Bowen was sworn in as treasurer during the same ceremony. Rudd has yet say when he will announce his complete Cabinet, but seven ministers resigned after Gillard’s ouster.

Rudd faces a potential no-confidence vote in Parliament, which he is expected to survive. A loss would trigger an election as early as Aug. 3.

Gillard has led a tenuous minority government since her parliamentary majority was diminished in the 2010 elections. Although she beat back a leadership challenge from Rudd early in 2012 and another challenge from his supporters in March of this year, she has since slid in the polls against Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition Liberal-National coalition.

Her government passed a range of prominent legislation during her tenure, most of which was popular. But one notably unpopular policy was the establishment in 2011 of the second-largest emissions-trading scheme in the world, after the European Union’s.

That policy, in which high-polluting industries can buy and sell permission to release emissions above a specified limit, drew attacks from the opposition, which accused her of flip-flopping on the issue after she promised not to enact it. It also proved unpopular with voters who feared that it would lead to increased energy costs.

Abbott, who polls suggest could secure a large parliamentary majority in the coming elections, warned voters that a change in the Labor Party’s leadership would not translate into changes in its policies.

“It seems that the Labor Party caucus has not just lost faith in the prime minister but is losing faith with the Labor Party itself,” he said Wednesday. “The Labor Party may well change its leader, but it doesn’t matter who leads the Labor Party, it will still be much the same government with much the same policies.” Information for this article was contributed by Matt Siegel of The New York Times and by Rod McGuirk of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 06/27/2013

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