2010 Australian Labor Party leadership spill
A leadership spill occurred in the Australian Labor Party on 24 June 2010.[1] Kevin Rudd, the prime minister of Australia, was challenged by Julia Gillard, the deputy prime minister of Australia, for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party.[2] Gillard won the election unopposed after Rudd declined to contest, choosing instead to resign.[3] Gillard was duly sworn in as prime minister by Quentin Bryce, the Governor-General, on 24 June 2010 at Government House, becoming Australia's first female prime minister.
Gillard was the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party since 4 December 2006, and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Australia after Labor's landslide victory in the 2007 federal election. She was also appointed the Minister for Education and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.[4][5]
Aftermath[edit]
On 17 July 2010, just 23 days after becoming prime minister, Gillard advised the Governor-General Quentin Bryce she wished to hold an election for 21 August 2010.[24] After a close contest between Gillard's Labor and Tony Abbott's Liberal/National Coalition, the election resulted in the first hung parliament since the 1940 election. Gillard was able to secure the support of the sole Greens MP and three Independent MPs in order to allow Labor to form a minority government, and Gillard was sworn in as prime minister for a second time on 14 September 2010. Kevin Rudd, who had successfully re-contested his seat at the election, accepted an offer to become minister for foreign affairs.[25]
Rudd regained the leadership, and the prime ministership, at the June 2013 Australian Labor Party leadership spill, shortly before Labor lost government at the 2013 Australian federal election.