PM: I have decided that at 10am Monday morning a ballot for the Labor leadership will be conducted. Following Kevin Rudd's resignation yesterday, I have formed this view that we need a leadership ballot in order to settle this question once and for all. I believe it is in the interests of Labor Party that it be determined once and for all, but much more importantly, I believe it is in the interests of the Australian nation.
For far too long we have seen squabbling within the Labor Party which has obscured the Government's achievements and what we are doing to build a stronger and fairer Australia for the future.
In recent days, I believe that this has moved to a distraction from governing itself. That's not good enough. Australians are rightly sick of this and they want it brought to an end. Only Labor can provide the vision that this country needs for our future and Labor can only provide it if we resolve this issue once and for all and proceed with unity and determination.
When the ballot is called at 10am on Monday morning, I will re-nominate for the Labor leadership and I expect to receive the support of my colleagues when I do so.
But let me be very clear about this - if against my expectation I do not receive the support of my colleagues, then I will go to the backbench and I will renounce any further ambition for the Labor leadership. This would be in the best interests of the Government and the nation.
I anticipate that Mr Rudd will also be a candidate in this ballot. I ask him to give the same undertaking, that if he does not succeed in this ballot that he will go to the backbench and renounce any further claims to the leadership and act in the interests of the Australian Labor Party and of our nation.
In the past 18 months under my leadership, the Government has secured some major reforms which will make us a stronger and fairer nation in the future. It will make us ready for the future.
In these reforms, I'm thinking of the reform we have introduced to put a price on carbon and to seize a clean energy future for us, a reform that a have delivered in this minority government Parliament, a reform that was not possible prior to my leadership despite the support of the then Leader of the Opposition for a price on carbon and despite the same Leader of the Greens being in the Federal Parliament.
Under my leadership we have also enacted a Minerals Resource Rent Tax to better share the mineral wealth within our grounds and to back in important changes like more superannuation for Australian workers and better arrangements to support small business. When I became leader of the Labor Party, this reform was the subject of a vicious national debate and there was no prospect that it was going to be secured.
Thirdly, under my leadership we have secured an historic health agreement right around the nation that is meaning more doctors, more nurses and more local control of hospitals. It's meaning less emergency department waiting time, it's meaning better access to elective surgery.
When I became Prime Minister there was an agreement which did not extend to every corner of the nation and which was being picked apart by premiers and was not going to stand the test of time.
Under my leadership, too, we have secured the structural separation of Telstra, what we needed to do in order to back in the roll-out of the National Broadband Network. This was a reform not attempted before I came to the prime-ministership, but a vital reform for the nation's future.
In addition, under my leadership we have secured the means testing of the private health insurance rebate. A fairness measure - fairer to low and middle income earners who are no longer going to be asked to subsidise the private health insurance of those who earn so much more than they do.
Once again prior to me becoming Prime Minister this reform had been attempted but it had not been secured - in this minority Parliament I have secured it.
And of course as Prime Minister I have continued to roll out the education reforms that I designed and we are in the process of adding to them, because there is nothing more important that our nation's future than making sure that every child goes to a great school and gets a great education.
At the same time, as we have done all of this, under my leadership we have ensured that low income workers get a fairer tax deal. We have taken the steps necessary to get the budget on the track back to surplus and we will deliver that surplus in 2012-13 and we have continued to manage the Australian economy so that it is strong and offers Australians the benefit of jobs. Jobs today whilst we build the new economy we will need for the jobs of tomorrow.
Now no government is perfect and I have made mistakes over the past 18 months, I acknowledge that, but ultimately the measure of a government is what the government achieves for the Australian people, what meaningful change and meaningful reforms are delivered. The measure of a government is not by opinion polls or daily headlines in newspapers.
I believe that the driving purpose of a Labor Government is to make sure our nation is stronger and fairer in the future than it is today. Achieving that vision requires us to make all of the right choices today, to manage the economy in the interests of working people whilst we make the right choices to build for the future, so that in that future people will have the opportunity to get a job, get a better job, start their own small business if they choose to, families will have the security that they need to nurture their children and to know that they will have a great future. That is the driving purpose and ambition of a Labor Government to meet the needs of working people today and tomorrow.
Ultimately, under my leadership, I believe we have been securing the big reforms that will make us stronger and fairer. But we've got so much more work to do building on those reforms. So much more work to do to make sure that every child does go to that great school which is why we are now pursuing the work flowing from the major review of school funding and new proposals to empower school principals so that they can run their schools knowing that they can give every child a great education.
The reforms we still have to pursue to make sure that Australian adults have the skills they need to get the job they want, which is why I am taking a major skills reform package to COAG in April.
The reforms that we need as a nation to make sure that in this time of structural adjustment and change we continue to be a nation that has got the benefit of a diversified economy, that we don't just have one source of strength, the resources boom, but we have many sources of strength including the manufacturing sector, tourism, international education, and a services economy.
We've got more to do to make sure that Australians who live a life with a disability or the people who care for those Australians with that disability get a fair go and a fair chance.
We've got more to do to make sure, as our society ages, that we are supporting older Australians and giving them the choices and options they need and deserve.
It is my intention to seek the support of my Labor colleagues to make sure that I can continue to pursue this reform agenda as Prime Minister. Meaningful reforms that will have an impact on Australian families and better support them in their lives and better give them economic opportunities for the future.
Now I note that Kevin Rudd in his media statements yesterday and today has very consistently referred to the need to defeat Tony Abbott at the next election.
I want to be clear about this too. I believe that we can win the next election and defeat Tony Abbott. I believe I can lead Labor to that victory, provided that the Labor Party unites and we get on with the job.
But I also want to be very clear about this - government is about more than electioneering. Government is about having the courage to get the big reforms done. Government is about making sure that each and every day you have the discipline and the method necessary to get the huge volume of work done that government needs to do. Government is about having the personal strength in adversity to still ensure that you stay focused and you get your job done.
I believe I have demonstrated those attributes as Prime Minister. The courage on the big reforms, the discipline and method to make every day count, the personal sense of strength which means that I can always keep going no matter how adverse the circumstances.
In this Labor leadership ballot I will be saying to my colleagues that we need to come together and to keep working in the interests of the Australian people each and every day, delivering the big reforms that are always the hallmarks of Labor governments. I'm very happy to take your questions.
JOURNALISTS: (inaudible)
PM: We'll do it one at a time, yes.
JOURNALIST: Your colleagues have been vociferous about the Kevin Rudd, including your deputy. Do you still maintain he led a good government that simply lost its way?
PM: Well on the question of 2010 and the past I would like to say something about that. My focus is on the future, not on the past, but let me just say some things about 2010.
I determined that I would contest the prime ministership in circumstances where the government that Kevin Rudd had led had entered a period of paralysis.
Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister always had very difficult and very chaotic work patterns. In my view, Kevin Rudd is an excellent campaigner and he was an excellent campaigner in 2007. Indeed, a remarkable campaigner in 2007.
But government requires different skills. Government requires consistency, purpose, method, discipline, inclusion, consultation; it requires you to lead a big team and to lead it well. Kevin Rudd, as Prime Minister, struggled to do that and by the days of 2010 that struggle had resulted in paralysis in the government.
In those circumstances I did ask Kevin Rudd for a leadership ballot and in that leadership ballot Kevin Rudd assessed he had so little support that did not choose to contest it.
That is the people who knew him best and knew the most about his prime ministership had determined that he no longer had their support. That's what motivated me in 2010, it was about the interests of the nation and providing good government.
Out of respect to Kevin Rudd at that time I didn't canvas every detail. I used the terminology that the government had lost its way. And clearly, with that level of paralysis the government had lost its way.
As Prime Minister I've worked very hard indeed to make sure that we govern with discipline and method and that is what I do as Prime Minister and that is what I will seek to have the support of my colleagues to continue to do.
Yes.
JOURNALIST: Graham Richardson this morning has said this has now got vicious and the wounds are deep and will last for a long time. That must be concerning for you. Is it vicious?
PM: There is a challenge here for Labor to have the leadership ballot on Monday and to unite after Monday. And certainly, my message to my colleagues will be that we do need to unite after Monday and get on with the job that Australians expect us to do and that job is about governing for them, each and every day.
Yes, of course, political parties campaign and political parties electioneer and I've played my fair part and my fair share in electioneering and election campaigns. But the focus of government has to be on delivering each and every day and that will be my message to my colleagues.
JOURNALISTS: (inaudible)
PM: And I'll finish answering the question. In terms of the Labor Party coming together, I think it is very important that the leadership ballot that is on Monday ends this once and for all, which is why I am prepared to say that if I am not successful in that leadership ballot, then I will go to the backbench and renounce any further ambition to the Labor leadership.
I expect to win. But if against my expectations I lose that is my commitment. Kevin Rudd should give a comparable commitment.
Yes?
JOURNALIST: How long has Kevin Rudd been undermining your leadership? And do you agree with comments made by Wayne Swan last night that went all the way back to that election?
PM: Well let me say this - over many months now there have been rumours of destabilisation of my leadership by Kevin Rudd.
On each and every occasion I have preferred to think the best of Kevin Rudd and think the best of his conduct. However, it is now evident to me and I think it is evident to the Australian people that there has been a long-running destabilisation campaign here to get to this point, where Kevin Rudd is clearly going to announce that he wants to seek the Labor leadership.
Now I don't seek to dwell on that because our purpose, my purpose, the Labor Party purpose, is about serving the nation's interests.
And I of course called the leadership ballot because I believe it is in the interests of the nation to get this resolved. Australians are rightly sick of it and that is why I have determined that the matter will be resolved on Monday.
JOURNALIST: According to your colleagues this has been going on since 2010, why didn't you act earlier to try and get rid of this destabilisation?
PM: Look, I have preferred on every occasion to believe the best of people. Now I think as we see all of the evidence in our newspapers every day, there has been a concerted campaign here and it's time that it was brought to an end and the way of ending it is with a ballot.
JOURNALIST: Are you giving Kevin Rudd a fair go though by calling a ballot so early in the week?
PM: Well let's just go through the circumstances here. Kevin Rudd announced his resignation as Foreign Minister yesterday. That was a decision he took at a time of his choosing.
It is now absolutely evident that Kevin Rudd is intending to return to Australia to ask me for a leadership ballot. I am not prepared for the nation to go through many days of drift before there is a clear point where this is going to be resolved.
And if I can make one political comment - overwhelmingly my view is about the nation and the need for certainty, but if can I make one political comment, I don't believe it is fair to Anna Bligh and to our colleagues campaigning in Queensland for this to drift on day after day with no resolution in sight.
JOURNALIST: Hasn't the government lost its way now for this situation to have evolved and if you don't win with a big majority on Monday it's going to continue, isn't it? À la Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard and Andrew Peacock (inaudible)
PM: Well on continuing, that's a question you need to put to Mr Rudd.
I've made my attitude very clear. This is the final decision by the Labor Party as to who should lead it and I will accept that decision as the final decision and conduct myself in accordance with it.
I believe Mr Rudd should give a comparable undertaking.
On the question of what the Government is doing now, let me assure Australians in this period I will continue to do my work as Prime Minister. I'm intending to do that. I was doing that yesterday. I'll do it today and I'll do it in the days to come.
But it is very clear to me that this is a distraction that is obscuring the ability of the Government to explain its reform program to Australians and for some in Government, I believe it is becoming a distraction from their work.
JOURNALIST: What does this say about your leadership that 18 months into that leadership you're being forced to call a leadership ballot?
PM: Well I think you need to put that question to some others who have brought us to this point.
JOURNALIST: Has anyone suggested to you that it would be in the party's best interests for a compromise candidate other than yourself to contest against Kevin Rudd?
PM: No, no one has suggested that to me.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you believe your partners in minority government could or would work with Kevin Rudd. Or have you had an indication from any of them that all bets are off?
PM: Look, all I've seen is their comments in the newspapers.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said earlier that you'd made some mistakes. What specifically were those mistakes that you made?
PM: Look I think that's a good question and I'd have to say having lived through the days of the Rudd Government and of course I was Deputy Prime Minister in the Rudd Government, so I take my fair share of the criticisms of that time.
But having lived through the days of the Rudd Government, it became absolutely clear to me that one of the overriding problems of the government that Kevin Rudd led is it was very, very focused on the next news cycle, on the next picture opportunity, rather than the long term reforms for the nation's interests.
I think, to be frank, as Prime Minister maybe I overreacted to that, maybe I went too much the other way, and I said to myself good policy will always speak for itself.
Well, good policy does speak for itself, but you've also got to be out there being a very strong advocate for it. So I've learned lessons about making sure that I'm not only in my office making sure we deliver the big reforms for the nation's future, but I'm also out explaining them in a way that helps Australians understand them and make sense of them and connect them to our big picture for the future.
So I think I've learned some lessons from that during these months.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, very quickly some are already saying that a drover's dog would lead the Liberals to an election victory next time around. I know that's an analogy from the past, but how do you (inaudible)
PM: I am confident that we can present at the next election in 2013 and that we can win that election, provided we use Monday's opportunity to end this for all time and then we get on with the job of delivering good government to the Australian people in the interests of a stronger and fairer Australia for the future.
And certainly, my intention as Prime Minister, if I secure my colleague's support during that ballot, and I anticipate that I will, if I secure my colleague's support in that ballot, then I will be simply getting on with that job and I think the message will have well and truly gone to others that it is over and that these days of destabilisation are behind us and we are focused with 100 per cent unity on what we need to govern in the best interests of Australians every day.
That takes courage, it takes method, it takes purpose, it takes discipline, it requires inner personal fortitude and strength and I will bring all of that to the table.
We'll take a couple more here and then we'll go.
JOURNALIST: Why are you better placed to beat Tony Abbott when the polls clearly show otherwise?
PM: I believe when people vote in this nation they vote on what is going to be in the best interests of their family. I don't believe you govern by looking at today's opinion polls and saying what do I believe in today? I don't believe you do that.
Opinion polls they'll go up, they'll go down. I'm under no illusions about the degree of political difficulty the Government confronts. I'm also under no illusions why we have those political difficulties.
We have worked to secure some big reforms. We have shown courage in adversity. I particularly said to myself when we formed this minority government that we were not going to leave reform opportunities by the wayside. I was not, because there was a minority Parliament, going to cower or have this nation cower from the big reforms.
So has it cost us, things like carbon pricing, yes it has. Is it absolutely the right thing for the nation's future, yes it is.
And I will be very prepared in the 2013 election to debate Tony Abbott and to say to him and to say to the Australian people you've got a choice here. You've got a choice about whether or not having seen that big reform secured and seeing more money in your pocket, as a result of that big reform, whether you want to keep that reform for the nation's future or descend into the chaotic policy that Tony Abbott has. I'll be very happy to that have that contest in 2013.
JOURNALIST: Kevin Rudd spoke about the support he has from his colleagues. What sort of support have you received from your colleagues, particularly the front bench?
PM: I've made it very clear over the days I've been questioned about this that I enjoy the strong support of my colleagues and I do.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Labor Party has made the structural reform has been controlled by the faceless men?
PM: Well thank you very much for that question too. Firstly, I think this chatter about faceless men is profoundly insulting to my Labor colleagues and my caucus colleagues, profoundly insulting to them.
I can tell you about my Labor colleagues. I can tell you about the men and women who make up the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party. They are people who went into public life because they believe in something. They believe in a Labor vision of the future. They believe in making sure that we deliver that Labor vision for the future. They believe in helping working families each and every day.
They are people of their own mind and own resources and they make up their own mind. And any suggestion that somehow they get told to do by someone else I think is deeply and personally insulting to each and every one of them.
JOURNALIST: Are you worried or are you concerned at what will happen if Kevin Rudd loses the ballot and he quits Parliament causing a by-election?
PM: Well you'll have to put that question to Kevin Rudd.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, will you now blame Kevin Rudd for sabotaging the 2010 election as some of your colleagues have said this morning?
PM: The 2010 election was sabotaged. We went into that election in very difficult circumstances as a result of the months of paralysis and chaos under Mr Rudd's leadership; the need to sort that out, the fact that huge reform issues like carbon pricing were in a mess, in a very big mess.
So we went into that election in politically very, very difficult circumstances. Notwithstanding that, in the early part of that election campaign, the opinion polls - and I don't ordinarily refer to them - but as you know during the weeks of an election campaign we get a blizzard of them and if people look at the opinion polls from 2010 and this accords with the Labor Party's own internal research, we were in a winning position in that campaign until the sabotage that knocked that campaign very, very solidly.
Now I had to come out, actually it was here in Adelaide is my recollection, and deal with
that sabotage of the campaign and get the campaign back up and going, pull myself and pull the team through, so that we could create a government and I did do that.
I found it within myself to make sure that we continued to campaign for all of the Labor policies and programs we believe in and then when confronted with a minority Parliament, I got myself right in there and made sure that we delivered government and we did.
So it required some stoicism but I think people who know me, and many people standing in this press pack do, people who know me would know stoicism and personal fortitude and a sense of calm under pressure is amongst my key attributes and one of the reasons can I do this job.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this has obviously been a very bitter struggle, you say that the ballot will hopefully provide a final decision, what guarantee can you give that there won't be more sabotage?
PM: You have to put that question to Kevin Rudd. I've made my view very clear. We'll take a last question here.
JOURNALIST: Can you rule out here and now that you ever leaked against Kevin Rudd when he was leader?
PM: Absolutely, I can rule that out one hundred per cent, one hundred per cent, and I can say this to you, feel free to ring any of your colleagues in the federal press gallery, and feel free to say to them “Julia Gillard absolves you of any obligation you might feel from off the record comments. Did she ever make a comment disloyal to Kevin Rudd during the time she was Deputy Prime Minister?” And to a person they will say no, because I never did.
Now I know this has been the subject of commentary in recent weeks, I want to be very clear about this - as the dysfunction in the government grew, I did everything I could. Everything humanly possible to try and salvage the situation and to try and make sure that Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister and the government that he led functioned. I went to extraordinary lengths.
Now I'm not going to sit here and stand here and detail all of that, but it's very well known inside Labor the extraordinary lengths I went to, as Deputy Prime Minister, holding the equivalent of two Cabinet portfolios, and then knocking myself out each and every day in things well beyond my own portfolio responsibilities and going to organisational matters in Mr Rudd's office to try and get the government functioning.
Increasingly, senior bureaucrats and senior advisers came to me in the course of all of that chaos as did my senior colleagues, because I became the touchstone, the person who had some prospect of going and getting things done during those days of dysfunction.
I did that as a loyal deputy, I did it to the best of my ability, and it became clear to me, very shortly before I asked Kevin Rudd for a leadership ballot that no matter what efforts I was prepared to put into it, it was not going to work and that is why I asked him for a leadership ballot.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) were you actually positioning (inaudible)
PM: I was doing everything I could as Deputy Prime Minister to get-
JOURNALIST: -To be Prime Minister.
PM: No, to get the government functioning, to get the government functioning and I'm not-
JOURNALIST: -How can people believe you-
PM: -Well I just told you the truth. Yes.
JOURNALIST: How can the people believe you when you were part of that dysfunction and you didn't speak up, because-
PM: -Well, that's because I believed that - well your question is internally inconsistent, let me answer it-
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, I'll answer it thanks very much-
JOURNALIST: -And you denied it.
PM: If you stop talking then I'll give you an answer but I can't give you an answer if you keep talking.
Your question is internally inconsistent. You are suggesting to me that somehow I either wasn't doing this work or if I was doing this work, I should have been speaking about it. Well it stands to reason that the work I was doing to get the government functioning was only going to work if I did it internally to the best of my ability-
JOURNALIST: -And that helped you to become the Prime Minister.
PM: Ultimately it became manifest to me that it wasn't going to work. What made me Prime Minister was the people who knew the functioning of that government best formed the view that I was the best person to lead it and formed the view in large numbers that Kevin Rudd was not-
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: -And consequently he did not present to the ballot.
JOURNALIST: Are you saying you had no ambition to be Prime Minister? That you just fell into (inaudible)
PM: I'll take a question here.
JOURNALISTS: That you just fell into the job, it just happened? The Australian -
PM: I'll answer your question but-
JOURNALIST: Because at that time the Australian -
PM: -I'm not listening to this rudeness, I'll answer your question and then I'll give a question to your colleague. Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) the Australian people (inaudible)
PM: I'm not going to have you just speak to me like this. End of sentence. I'll answer your question and I'll take a question from your colleague.
And the answer to your question is exactly what I have just described to you. Now it is your colleague's turn, don't be rude to him.
JOURNALIST: Is it not that that is exactly the paradox, that Kevin Rudd, for the reasons that you outlined previously, is unpopular apparently so with most of your colleagues, yet people in the community view him very favourably. That's the problem for you, isn't it?
PM: Well I've just outlined to you my approach to government and how it's about getting things done.
Thanks very much, thank you.