Leadership tussle looms in Australia as Rudd resigns

Wisconsin Star Wednesday 22nd February, 2012

SYDNEY - In a dramatic move, Kevin Rudd resigned Wednesday as Australia's foreign minister sparking speculation that he may challenge the leadership of Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Rudd made the surprise announcement at a hotel in Washington at 2 a.m., capping weeks of political tension between him and the prime minister.

Rudd said he was tired of the leadership "soap opera" and that he no longer had Gillard's confidence.

"The simple truth is I cannot continue to serve as foreign minister if I don't have Prime Minister Gillard's support," he said at the press conference, which was broadcast live in Australia.

"I therefore believe the only honourable course of action is for me to resign." He did not say if he would be challenging Gillard for the leadership, but stated that he would not be involved in a "stealth attack on a sitting prime minister".

Rudd said he would be returning home on Friday and would decide his future course of action then.

Rudd also doubted Gillard's ability to defeat opposition leader Tony Abbott in the 2013 polls.

Gillard replaced Rudd as prime minister in June 2010 after he lost support within the party.

There has been widespread speculation in the media that Rudd was planning to contest Gillard's leadership of the governing Labor Party.

Gillard, whose popularity has been dipping, leads a minority government and relies on independents for its wafer-thin majority.

Adding to the tensions between the two, Gillard was last week grilled by Australian media over allegations that her staff had readied a "victory speech" two weeks before Rudd was ousted.

The prime minister said she had not commissioned the speech, but hedged on whether she knew in advance of it being written.