Australia’s Labor Caucus Backs Gillard Leadership, Treasurer Swan Says
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg
Julia Gillard, Australia's prime minister.
Julia Gillard, Australia's prime minister. Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd
Patrick Hamilton/Bloomberg
Kevin Rudd, Australia's foreign minister.
Kevin Rudd, Australia's foreign minister. Photographer: Patrick Hamilton/Bloomberg
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has the backing of Labor Party lawmakers, according to Treasurer Wayne Swan, amid speculation that Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is considering a leadership challenge.
“Our prime minister has the strong support of our caucus,” Swan said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. television yesterday. “She is someone who is getting things done.”
Gillard met with party lawmakers in the capital Canberra yesterday ahead of tomorrow’s start to the parliamentary year in a bid to boost morale amid media reports about a possible challenge by Rudd, whom she ousted in a late-night party coup in June 2010. Australia’s first female leader received a boost in a Nielsen poll published today in the Sydney Morning Herald that showed increased support for her and the government among voters.
Gillard rose 6 percentage points as preferred prime minister to 48 percent in the survey conducted Feb. 2-4, with opposition leader Tony Abbott on 46 percent, the survey showed. Labor rose four percentage points as the preferred party to 33 percent, trailing Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition on 45 percent, down four percentage points. The survey of 1,400 people had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
‘Surprising’ Bounce
“The bounce is a bit surprising, but the most important poll for Gillard is her caucus,” said John Wanna, a professor of public administration at the Canberra-based Australian National University, who isn’t aligned with any political party. “She will keep her leadership if she performs well in parliament and her caucus thinks she has voters’ support,” he said in a phone interview today.
Gillard formed a government after the nation’s closest election in seven decades in September 2010, three months after replacing Rudd as leader. Her parliamentary majority was reduced to one seat last month when an independent lawmaker withdrew his support, saying she’d broken a pledge to tighten gambling laws.
“It’s a different image of leadership,” Gillard said in an interview broadcast on the Seven Network yesterday, referring to being the nation’s first female leader. “I’m not surprised that it’s kind of taking a bit of time for that to settle with the Australian public.”
Swan and senior members of the ruling Labor government including Defense Minister Stephen Smith and Kim Carr, manufacturing minister, have publicly backed Gillard to remain as leader.
Planning Session
The meeting in Canberra was a planning session for the party ahead of Parliament’s first sitting for the year, Gillard told 2CC radio on Feb. 3.
Rudd, who wasn’t present at yesterday’s meeting because he was in Germany for a conference, said last week he was happy with his role as foreign minister, according to The Australian newspaper. The next general election will be held in 2013.
Speculation of a coup by Rudd intensified after a Jan. 28-29 Newspoll survey showed Labor’s primary vote fell one percentage point to 30 percent, behind the Liberal-National coalition’s 45 percent.
Gillard’s lead as preferred prime minister in the latest Newspoll fell 3 percentage points to 40 percent, compared with Abbott’s 37 percent. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Several ministers would leave their posts if Rudd retook the leadership, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Feb. 4, without naming them. Independent lawmaker Rob Oakeshott, who helped Labor form a minority government in 2010, won’t guarantee his support for the party if there is a leadership change, the newspaper reported.
Economic Record
Abbott criticized Gillard last week for her handling of the economy. In 2011, her first full year as prime minister, the nation recorded its worst job growth in 19 years and house prices slumped by a record 4.8 percent.
Gillard plans to implement a price on carbon emissions and pass mining tax legislation through the Senate this year. Last month she faced hurdles including opposition demands for an inquiry into Labor’s role in clashes between police and aboriginal protesters.
Labor lawmakers will focus on policies that help businesses, including those affected by the nation’s high dollar, Swan said yesterday. The government is committed to returning its budget to surplus in 2012-13, which will require fiscal discipline, he said.
Swan also criticized Australia’s banks for signaling they may not pass on in full any cuts to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s benchmark rate.
“What they are saying is that they should have a right, irrespective of any particular market condition, to maintain forever huge profitability,” Swan said.
“There’s a lot of other businesses out there that would look at that sort of approach of the banks and they’d be pretty puzzled, because the marketplace isn’t working like that for them.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McDonald in Sydney at smcdonald23@bloomberg.net; Jason Scott in Canberra at jscott14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net
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