New Aussie PM says Rudd ouster right thing to do
Australia’s new leader Julia Gillard defended her ruthless disposal of predecessor Kevin Rudd on Friday as she used her first day in office to target the policy blunders which triggered the shock takeover.
The country’s first woman Prime Minister said deposing Mr Rudd was “the right thing to do” and immediately set about ending a damaging row over a mining tax which fatally drained the ex-leader’s support as national polls loom.
Ms Gillard was elected unopposed on Thursday in a party vote announced only hours earlier as a tearful Mr Rudd, facing a humiliating defeat, stepped aside, just two-and-a-half years after sweeping to a landslide election win.
“They were not easy decisions. I have taken them because I thought they were the right thing to do,” Ms Gillard told reporters. “I felt it was in the best interests of the nation to get the government back on track.”
The flame-haired, Welsh-born lawyer promised greater teamwork than Mr Rudd, whose controlling tendencies alienated him in the party and finally cost him the job as his enduring public support came down from record highs.
But she denied being a puppet of Labour’s factional powerbrokers who are widely credited with orchestrating the first unseating of an Australian Prime Minister since Paul Keating deposed Bob Hawke in 1991.
“I can understand that the Opposition and others will try and put a character on the events of recent days,” Ms Gillard said.
“But... it is completely absurd for anybody to look at my track record in this place and to conclude anything other than that I have made my own decisions. I am a person of strong mind and I made my own decisions.” Ms Gillard said it was her “priority” to deal with the planned 40 per cent mining tax, which has incensed the influential resources industry.
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