(Image source: Ray Strange )

 

BY CELIA MURRAY

ANCHOR LAUREN GORES



Game on. The leadership challenge in Australia between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard is heating up.

Here’s CNN with the latest:

“Australian’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has resigned … The move comes mid speculation that Rudd has been planning to challenge Prime Minister Julia Gillard for the Labor party leadership, and reports that she was preparing to sack him.”

His resignation follows a weekend of attacks by former supporters. In his resignation speech , Rudd says part of the reason he is resigning is that Prime Minister Gillard didn’t come to his defense during the attacks.

Kevin Rudd:“When challenged today on these attacks Prime Minister Gillard chose not to repudiate them. I can only reluctantly conclude that that she therefore shares these views.”

But a journalist for The Punch has little sympathy for Rudd — pointing out, the former PM has been known to underhandedly attack his political enemies.

“His claim that the public is sick and tired of this ‘soap opera’ is laughable, given that he has written much of its script with his destabilising tactics, and consistent, coquettish denials of any complicity on the day the leaks emerge.”

But as many analysts note, Rudd’s popularity within the government isn’t the main concern.  Rudd posed a key question to his former supporters during his resignation speech. ABC Australia's Lateline had a closer look , 

Kevin Rudd: “Who is best placed to defeat Tony Abbot at the election?”
Bruce Hawker, ALP Strategist: “And Kevin Rudd is a very popular politician, everyone knows that. He’s the most popular politician in the Labor government by a long shot.”

Indeed, many believe that Rudd is just days away from challenging Julia Gillard as Prime Minister— and Bloomberg reports , it’ll be quite the challenge.

“Julia Gillard staged a political coup in June 2010 to become Australia’s prime minister and clung to power two months later, assembling a one-seat majority after the closest election since 1940. Her biggest leadership test may come next week.”

Whatever the outcome, a writer for The Age says the current government is simply a mess.

“A party that overthrows a PM in his first term, and then returns to consider its choice a couple of years later, has forfeited its credibility. However these events turn out, the chance of the government appearing convincing to a majority of Australians seem nil - ”
 
According to a journalist for Crikey , for now, it looks like the ball is in Rudd’s court.

“Rudd has now seized back the initiative and can keep the Gillard camp — and his colleagues —   guessing about what he has in store for the government next week.”