Gillard survives final caucus meeting

June 25th, 2013

Peter Nolan

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is maintaining her grip on the leadership as the window for a change to Kevin Rudd narrows.

Mr Rudd is due to fulfil a long-scheduled appointment by flying to Beijing on Thursday afternoon to give a speech at a global summit alongside former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

With parliament sitting for its last week before the election, this leaves Wednesday or Thursday morning for caucus to respond to a possible petition for a special meeting to deal with the issue.

As of Tuesday evening there was no sign of a petition, which requires 34 signatures.

Labor backbencher Graham Perrett challenged those still unhappy with Ms Gillard to call a ballot.

“Rather than going on TV to talk about it, go and get … other names,” he told reporters.

The leadership issue was not discussed at the final scheduled caucus meeting in Canberra on Tuesday.

But Ms Gillard faced a pointed question from Rudd-backer Jill Hall, who wanted to know why MPs had not received a detailed briefing on the party’s election strategy.

Ms Gillard was also pressured by MPs advocating a change of approach to asylum seekers, with another Rudd-backer Laura Smyth unsuccessfully moving a motion to soften the government’s “no advantage” test applying to boat arrivals.

While polls indicate Labor could lose almost half of its lower house seats, the prime minister told colleagues the government’s electoral strategy was clear.

The three key issues will be extra school funding, the disability care scheme and the national broadband network, showing voters Labor is “investing in the future”, she said.

Ms Gillard, who has posed for a photograph showing her knitting a toy kangaroo for the next royal baby, has also given an upbeat assessment of Labor’s election prospects in an interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine to be published this week.

“I believe we can win seats, the seats necessary to have a majority Labor government,” she says.

“We’ve certainly got our eyes on running this election to win.”

Mr Rudd was not at the caucus meeting, as he was travelling to Sydney to attend a memorial service for Hazel Hawke, the former wife of former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke.

Ms Gillard also attended the service but travelled separately by government jet.

Deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop said she was given Mr Rudd’s spot on the jet because he had rejected Ms Gillard’s offer of a lift.

Resources Minister Gary Gray said he expected Mr Rudd would go to China as planned.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told his final coalition party room meeting for the year the election would be closer than polls suggested and Ms Gillard would be “tough and ruthless” when it came to campaigning.

Mr Abbott used question time, from which Ms Gillard was absent, to grill Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan on the economy and an upcoming rise in the carbon tax from $23 per tonne to $24.15 on July 1.

Mr Swan was forced by the Speaker to withdraw a comment made under parliamentary privilege that Mr Abbott was “drunk” when Labor’s stimulus bills went through parliament in early 2009.

Former Labor minister Graham Richardson says there’s pressure on Mr Rudd to contest the leadership this week and he had the numbers in caucus to win.

“I don’t have evidence that he is definitely going to do it,” Mr Richardson told Macquarie Radio.

“But I do know there has been movement in the Gillard camp and I now have no doubt he has the numbers – he has towards 60 now (out of the 102 member caucus).

“And so if he runs he must win and I think the pressure on him to run will be enormous.”

Mr Richardson said he expected there would be a challenge on Thursday and Mr Rudd would win it.

Labor Leadership