from the ABC

Julia Gillard has been elected unopposed to the Labor leadership, seizing power in a bloodless Parliament House coup after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd decided not to contest this morning's leadership ballot.

Ms Gillard will now be sworn in as Australia's first female Prime Minister. Emerging from this morning's meeting, she said she felt "very honoured" and said she would be making a statement shortly.

Treasurer Wayne Swan now steps up as Deputy Prime Minister. He was also elected unopposed.

A stony-faced Mr Rudd left the meeting in the company of Labor stalwart John Faulkner.

Ms Gillard now has the task of leading a traumatised and divided party to a federal election which could be held in a matter of weeks.

Mr Rudd's sudden and spectacular downfall makes him the first Labor prime minister to be dumped from office before completing a first term.

The situation came to a head last night after senior factional powerbrokers from the right told Ms Gillard she had enough support to take the leadership.

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Gus: check Julia Gillard..

number 27 is a great number...

I cannot express my feelings as to the assassination of yet another courageous Labor Reformer who the main stream media, as I have always believed, is a major influence in the election (and dismissal) of governments in democracies only - because they can.

The continuous and successful assassination campaign by the one and a half main stream media against Kevin Rudd was, as all independent observers would note, not only unfair but unjustified.

Let’s be fair dinkum.  Tony Abbott did not unite the Liberals – the media did. This I believe was because of the enormous faith the Australian people had in Kevin Rudd and his front bench, the best at least in my memory.

Those who do not learn by the mistakes of history are bound to repeat them.

Like Gough Whitlam – the Rudd government was a government of the people, by the people and for the people – so what happened? 

The media put a gag on any favorable information about Kevin Rudd while hiding Abbott in the “cone of silence”.  It pumped up resentment against Rudd on a totally personal basis and compounded that by concentrating the public’s attention on the small percentage of failures in his policies while completely ignoring his achievements.

Abbott - he only had to keep his mouth shut for the media conspiracy to achieve its ultimate aim.  And he did - and it did.

The attempt at dignity by the Government in Question time today was an orchestrated “The King is dead – long live the Queen”. 

So we have two major parties, one by the Liberals - being torn between the have and the have not’s and foreign control, and the Labor party whose policies are on the table and are only challenged by the Foreign Corporations.

My Wife and I were shocked and dismayed by the events of today and we believed that Kevin Rudd could have lead our Labor party to victory, thereby at least rattling the “absolute power” of the Murdoch media.

Kevin Rudd not only fought against the foreign ownership of Australian assets but he also moved to share our “wealth” among the needy people he had sworn to represent. Shades of Gough Whitlam.

After conceding to the demands of the Main Stream Media with the political assassination of another Labor reformist Prime Minister, the gullible Australian people are now confronted with a political dilemma mainly dictated by that very same Murdoch Media.

I have previously written in this forum that nothing is as important to the “powers that be” than to remove a government of the people, and for the people – I wrote “It is all about the election stupid”. 

Not the incidentals that were used to denigrate Kevin Rudd and – nothing about Tony Abbott. I do not apologize for noticing the immediate reaction of Cardinal Pell at the attempt to corrupt a Government with biased religion or the other “Christians” who chose to be politically involved.  Fair dinkum.

The question now has not changed. Do the gullible and media lead Australian voters really agree with the Murdocracy that we should go back to Howardism?  Struth.

God Bless Australia and may our people be more educated to fight against the foreign Corporations and their Liberal representatives. NE OUBLIE.

The contrast between the "spit the dummy" of Malcolm Turnbull when he was unseated by Tony Abbott and the dignity and proud Australian attitude of Kevin Rudd must be historical lessons?   

And a warning that our history has been repeated as it was in the 1975 crucifixion of another great Australian for independence, namely Gough Whitlam. And then again by the media power of the then Packer (read Murdoch) control of the “hearts and minds” of the Australian people.

The everlasting garbage of “Ming the Merciless” Menzies and McCarthyism is that anyone who dares to use the terms of “the people” is a Communist, is still used in the neo-con Coalition members of Murdoch’s Parliament.

The facts to my mind are that – a nation is as rich as its poorest citizen but I guess that that would not sit well with the “powers that be”.

If anything can be salvaged by the upheaval of the recent events in the Federal Parliament is certainly that there is an enormous and wealthy conspiracy to maintain a government subject to the policies of foreign interests.

With the influence of the catastrophic alternative – I still support the Labor government if we are ever to be an independent identity on the world stage.

I cannot come to terms with the picture of the swaggering Tony Abbott being Australia’s representative on international issues.  Struth.

God Bless Australia and may we survive the MSM control of our election processes.  NE OUBLIE.

The contrast between the "spit the dummy" of Malcolm Turnbull when he was unseated by Tony Abbott and the dignity and proud Australian attitude of Kevin Rudd must have historical lessons?   

And a warning that our history has been repeated as it was in the 1975 crucifixion of another great Australian for independence, namely Gough Whitlam. And then again by the media power of the Packer (read Murdoch) control of the “hearts and minds” of the Australian people.

The everlasting garbage of “Ming the Merciless” Menzies and McCarthyism is that anyone who dares to use the terms of “the people” is a Communist, is still used in the neo-con Coalition members of Murdoch’s Parliament.

The facts to my mind are that – a nation is as rich as its poorest citizen but I guess that that would not sit well with the “powers that be”.

If anything can be salvaged by the upheaval of the recent events in the Federal Parliament is certainly that there is an enormous and wealthy conspiracy to maintain a government subject to the policies of foreign interests namely Tony Abbott.

With the influence of the catastrophic alternative – I still support the Labor government if we are ever to be an independent identity on the world stage.

I cannot come to terms with the picture of the swaggering Tony Abbott being Australia’s representative on international issues.  Struth.

God Bless Australia and may we survive the MSM control of our election processes.  NE OUBLIE.

Former Labor leader Mark Latham says it is likely Prime Minister Julia Gillard will eventually suffer the same fate as her predecessor Kevin Rudd.

Ms Gillard became Labor leader yesterday after Mr Rudd was ousted in a leadership coup.

Mr Latham said Ms Gillard needs to watch her back and the Labor leadership has become a "transit lounge".

"Wayne Swan is no fan of hers," he told Sky News.

"Gillard has, for reasons I never quite understood, enormous animus from people like [Anthony] Albanese and [Lindsay] Tanner and [Jenny] Macklin.

"I don't know what they did down there in the Victorian left in the 80s and 90s, [but] they hate each other."

He said he could not believe how quickly some of Mr Rudd's followers dumped him and that factional leaders were clearly intent on axing Mr Rudd.

Mr Latham also said those factional leaders would have looked for another MP to take the leadership if Ms Gillard chose not to challenge.

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"If [Ms] Gillard had said no to [Mark] Arbib and [Bill] Shorten and co, they would have said... 'Wayne Swan will have a go, we'll run him'," he said.

"I think Gillard was in a position where she was the inevitable successor - everyone acknowledged that.

"But if she persisted in saying no she wasn't going to launch a challenge or run in a ballot, then they would have easily found someone else.

"There is plenty of people down there who think they can be prime minister."

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Gus: not only there is plenty of people down there who think they can be prime minister, there is plenty of people down there who CAN be prime minister... unlike the thug's party, where Tony-the-thug is the "only" prospect, apart from Malcolm the Debonaire...