Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Foreign Minister, has resigned. Rudd announced his resignation in Washington D.C., where he had just met with Hilary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State. Rudd was ousted as Australia’s Prime Minster by Julia Gillard, who took over the position in June 2010.
There has been a lot of speculation in the last few months that Rudd was planning on trying to get the Prime Minister job back. Gillard said that Rudd did not tell her that he was planning on resigning. Gillard has had a lot of calls to fire Rudd and he said that it’s because of her failure to defend and support him that made his decision to resign easier.
Rudd said that without Gillard’s support, he does not feel that he can continue to serve as Australia’s Foreign Minister. Rudd did not address whether he planned on challenging Gillard for the country’s top leadership position; however, he did say he would be returning to Brisbane on Friday from the United States.
Rudd did say that he was not going to party to a “stealth attack” on the prime minister. He did say that will be consulting his community and his family before he makes any type of announcement about where he will go from here. There does not appear to be one specific reason for his resignation. There aren’t any strong policy differences between Gillard and Rudd.
Radio and television networks have been asking the question of “will he or won’t he” since the middle of last summer. Some believe that it’s a risky move on Rudd’s part, especially since there is strong opposition and there is an election coming up in 2013. However, Gillard has been slipping in the polls lately and the ruling Labor Party is trying to keep ahold of their falling voter support.
Gillard said that she will be holding a press conference later today to address Rudd’s resignation.
