Rudd backers gathering to oust Gillard

Australian prime minister Julia Gillard says she still has enough support to lead the government despite growing speculation that foreign minister Kevin Rudd plans to seize power.

Gillard came to power in an internal coup within the Labour Party that ousted Rudd in June 2010. She became only the third prime minister since Australian World War II to gain power in this way.

But speculation is mounting that Rudd supporters plan to attempt to restore him to power. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that rebel Labour lawmakers were circulating a petition calling for a leadership ballot next week. The petition needs at least 35 signatures from among the 103 Labour lawmakers in the Parliament to force a ballot.

Sen Bob Brown, whose minor Greens party is part of the government’s coalition, said last night he expects that Labour will hold the ballot next week.

A change of leadership could bring down the government, since Brown and independent lawmakers who support Gillard’s government say their agreements would not necessarily apply if Rudd took over.

Gillard said Rudd does not have enough support among his government colleagues to successfully challenge.

“I enjoy the strong support of my colleagues,” she told reporters.

Rudd is in the US and has repeatedly denied he plans to challenge Gillard for the party leadership.

Many Australians were angry when the government dumped Rudd, the prime minister who swept into office after the 2007 general election. In Australia’s system, the prime minister is chosen by a majority of lawmakers in the House of Representatives, not by voters.

In 2010, Labour lawmakers moved against Rudd because opinion polls suggested that they were unlikely to win elections that year under his leadership.

Labour under Gillard scraped through the 2010 elections to form the first minority government in Australia since World War II. Polls now suggest that Labour is headed for a devastating defeat at elections due next year.

Meanwhile, Gillard, an opponent of same-sex marriage, hosted a dinner for two lesbian couples and a pair of gay men after an Australian activist group won a charity auction.

The couples used the three-course meal at Gillard’s official residence in the national capital of Canberra to lobby the prime minister to allow gay marriage.

Twelve-year-old Matthew Miller presented Gillard with flowers and two letters explaining why he and his brother Dylan, 9, would like their biological mother Sandy Miller to marry their other mother, Louise Bucke.

“Since they’re not allowed to get married, they’re basically being called not normal and we’re not known as a proper family,” Matthew said at Parliament House before the dinner, which the boys did not attend.

Along with Miller and Bucke, other guests were Brisbane academic Sharon Dane, 54, who married Elaine Crump, 53, in Canada in a ceremony that is not recognised in Australia.

However, Steve Russell, 51, and John Dini, 29, decided against marrying overseas because it would carry no weight in Australia.

While they could have a civil union recognised under state law in their hometown of Melbourne, they do not regard that as equal to marriage.

The activist group GetUp! paid $31,000 for the dinner when they won a bidding war against a Christian lobby group at the Press Gallery of Australia annual charity ball in June last year.