Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced Thursday that a vote would be held in Capital Canberra on Monday for the leadership of the ruling Labor Party to settle a tussle between her and her predecessor Kevin Rudd.
"For far too long, we have been squabbling within the Labor Party, which has obscured the government's achievements and what we are doing to build a stronger and fairer Australia. We need a leadership ballot to settle this question once and for all," Gillard told reporters in Adelaide.
"In recent days, I believe that this has moved to a distraction from governing itself. That's not good enough. Australians are rightly sick of this, and they want it brought to an end," she noted. "I believe it is in the interests of the Labor Party that it be determined once and for all."
Stating that she expected Rudd "be a candidate in this ballot" involving Labor members of the Parliament, Gillard expressed confidence that she would emerge as the winner in both the leadership vote as well as the next election scheduled for 2013.
Gillard said she would "go to the back bench" and "renounce any further ambition for the Labor leadership" if she loses in Monday's ballot. She also urged Rudd to declare a similar commitment to avoid future leadership tussles in the Labor Party.
Gillard's reaction came a day after Kevin Rudd announced his resignation as Foreign Minister while on a visit to the United States, saying he believed he no longer had the support of the Prime Minister.
"I therefore believe the only honorable course of action is for me to resign," Rudd said at a press conference held in Washington DC early on Wednesday. Without disclosing whether he intended to challenge Gillard when he returns to Australia by the end of the week, Rudd insisted that he would not be involved in a "stealth attack on a sitting Prime Minister elected by the people."
Rudd, who became the Foreign Minister after being toppled from premiership by Gillard in June 2010 in an internal party coup before the general election held later that year, said: "We all know that what happened then was wrong and it must never happen again."
Nevertheless, he said he would take a decision about his future course of action only after consulting his family members and community. The decision would be taken before the Parliament convened next week, he added.
Rudd is expected back in Australia on Friday. Before his departure from Washington DC, he told reporters that he was "pleased and encouraged by the support" he received from several party members after his resignation.
"They regard me as the best prospect to lead the Australian Labor Party successfully to the next elections, to save the Australian Labor Party at those elections, and to save the country from the ravages of an (Opposition leader Tony) Abbott government," he said. "This question of the future of the leadership of our party and our country is not about personality. it's about trust and it's also about policy and vision."
Although Australian media has been speculating in recent months about an alleged move by party's senior ranks to replace Gillard with her predecessor, Rudd had earlier downplayed those reports stating that he was satisfied with the post of Foreign Minister.
The developments come as the popularity rating of Gillard was near record low, mostly due to her plans for imposing new carbon and mining taxes as well her policies to deal with the issue of large number of asylum seekers arriving on Australian shores by boat from Indonesia.
Despite the setbacks, Gillard had insisted earlier that she would be the one to lead her party into the next general election due in 2013, stressing that Australians would "increasingly see the achievements of the government's agenda."
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