Australian leadership row intensifies as PM calls ballot

Australian prime minister Julia Gillard called a ballot on the leadership of the ruling Labour Party, bringing to a head an increasingly bitter and ugly row with her predecessor Kevin Rudd.

Gillard said a vote would be held on Monday when parliament resumes, after Rudd dramatically quit as foreign minister while in Washington amid reports she was planning to sack him for undermining the party.

“Australians are rightly sick of this and they want it brought to an end,” Gillard said of a battle for power that has been variously described by ministers as a “farce“, “soap opera” and a “comedy”.

Gillard told reporters she would again stand, and were she to lose would retire to the backbench and renounce future claims to the leadership, calling on Rudd to do the same.

“For far too long we have seen squabbling within the Labour party which has obscured the government’s achievements and what we are doing to build a stronger and fairer Australia for the future,” she said.

Australia’s government has been torn by speculation about whether Rudd, whom Gillard brutally ousted as prime minister in mid-2010 but who remains popular with voters, would mount a bid to return to the top job. He is yet to formalise his plans but, in a clear pitch to caucus members, Rudd cited his record as prime minister, declaring the achievements of his government had been formidable before boarding a plane back to Australia.

He laid out four key priorities under a government he would lead, including restoring business confidence, maintaining a strong manufacturing industry, and continuing health and education reform.

In a broad hint that he wants his old job back, the 54-year-old said Gillard could not win the next elections due in 2013.

“I do not believe that prime minister Gillard can lead the Australian Labour Party to success in the next election,” he said.

On current numbers, Rudd, regarded by some in the party as high-handed and egotistical, is likely to lose the ballot and be banished to the backbench.

Since Rudd’s resignation, senior ministers, including treasurer Wayne Swan and trade minister Craig Emerson, have been lining up to savage him in what has become a vitriolic and divisive showdown.

But Rudd also has his supporters, with resources minister Martin Ferguson emerging with an open pledge of support. The person most likely to benefit from the government’s implosion is opposition leader Tony Abbott, who called the leadership battle “an embarrassment”.