Greg Combet Says Julia Gillard Offered To Stand Aside For Him

Greg Combet, a senior minister in the previous Labor government, says then Prime Minister Julia Gillard offered to stand aside to allow him to assume the leadership.

Combet appeared in an interview broadcast on the ABC’s 7.30 program tonight. Combet’s memoirs, The Fights of My Life, will be released next week and launched by Gillard.

Combet says that he approached Gillard in mid-June last year and was of the view that a ballot for the leadership should be held. He said Gillard offered to stand aside if he put his name forward. He says he declined because he thought the momentum for Rudd’s return was well-developed and that it would be a difficult political manoeuvre to “pull off”. Facing a personal health problem, Combet said he decided not to nominate. [Read more…]


Removing Kevin Rudd: A Year Ago Tonight

It’s a year ago tonight that moves to topple Prime Minister Kevin Rudd began.

The first we knew of the challenge to Rudd’s 30-month prime ministership was this tweet from the ABC’s Chris Uhlmann at 7.00pm:

Chris Uhlmann's 7pm tweet on June 23, 2010

 
Simultaneously, ABC television broke the news on its 7pm bulletin:

  • Listen to the audio of the ABC bulletin:
  • Watch the ABC bulletin

Kevin Rudd’s Leadership Under Challenge

The challenge to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s leadership came on the evening of June 23, 2010.

The first we knew that Rudd’s 30-month prime ministership was at risk was this tweet from the ABC’s Chris Uhlmann at 7.00pm: [Read more…]