Mr Rudd resigned as foreign minister in Washington DC on Wednesday and
announced his candidacy after returning to Australia this morning. He had
been widely expected to challenge Ms Gillard and the looming leadership
battle has led to bitter internal party warfare.
Mr Rudd attacked Ms Gillard’s political record, saying she urged him to dump
his carbon pricing scheme as prime minister – a move that is credited as
initiating his decline.
“The Government’s problems have been of its own making. If I didn’t exist,
people would have cast around for an alternative leader for the Labor
Party,” he said.
Ms Gillard has yet to respond to Mr Rudd’s challenge but earlier today
declared the ballot is not an episode of “Celebrity Big Brother”.
Mr Rudd was elected in a landslide victory in 2007 over John Howard, who had
led the country for eleven years. But he was ousted amid declining approval
ratings and the party’s virtually unanimous preference for Ms Gillard.
But Ms Gillard has struggled in the polls and is on track to lose the next
election, due in 2013.
“The choice that my colleagues will make on Monday is about who should be
prime minister of this nation,” she said today.
“It is a choice about who’s got the strength, the temperament, the character,
the courage, to lead this nation, who’s got the ability to get things done
even in the face of adversity. This is not an episode of Celebrity Big
Brother, this is about who should be prime minister.”
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