I for one am delighted that Julia Gillard has taken the reigns from Rudd. Not because I necessarily think Julia will do the job better, but because I would absolutely hate to see Abbott as Prime Minister.

At least with Julia at the helm, Labour has more than a snowballs chance in hell of winning the upcoming election than it would have had with Rudd.

What amuses me is the fact that I suspect many of Abbotts conservative supporters would not be comfortable with a female Prime Minister at all, let alone an unmarried woman living with a man. I love it!

I think Gillard may just slide into office again at the coming election.

I have to say that I didn’t always agree with Rudd –to tell the truth, I rarely agreed with him.But like Foxy “I must confess that I'm totally gutted” by the way his party treated him.

And, I agree with Tony Abbott : “A midnight knock on the door, followed by midnight execution is no way that the Australian prime minister should be treated."

But having seen that same party take great delight in character assassinations of its erstwhile leader, Mark Latham, at every opportunity ---I should have expected what happened today.

Heck, why would anyone bother being a politician, in this day and age, when it means someone is always trying to catch you out, or sell you out.Especially when, you can make more money running your own business .

How’s that old song go:
“Mama don't let your babies grow up to be [politicians] …Make 'em be doctors and lawyers and such”

Sad news that Lindsay Tanner won't be contesting the next election but he obviously has his reasons. Big shoes to fill.

Quite so Horus. Kevin Rudd is no stranger to factional leadership spills. Also hope Arbib is not awarded a Cabinet position - that would be a first mistake for Julia.

I share my Friend Foxys views ,never saw it coming never believed it would.
But Kevin, forever loved, made the tools that defeated him.
Forged the lever that separated him from party, let young members of his team, not elected have more say than ministers.
And we all know the gang of four both saved us In the GFC and made stupid choices like killing the ETS and a half sold not fully though out mining tax.
Watch the difference , we will see a much more involved team, less control and anger behind the scenes.
rechtub, your charge is hollow, in fact you should understand that dept saved us from the GFC, history even being written now, shows our current dept as a Rudd achievement.
Two posters show concerns here based on understanding, respected and liked CJ Morgan, you understand yesterday ALP voters who parked in greens country are about to return.
Boat people? no way we should return to Howard's policy but we are In a minority.
Voters do not agree are we to flog any party for delivering to voters policy's they scream for?

What's the alternative?

Here it is - - - - several years with Tony Abbott as Prime Minister:

Result - - - - huge conglomerate miners continuing with their legal tax scams, abortion outlawed, reneging on paid parental leave, climate change declared a communist plot and made illegal, work choices reinstated, unions declared "anti-Australian", the Catholic Church declared the one and only "true" church, women disenfranchised (after all they have children to raise and meals to cook...... that's all they need), Boaz (AlGoreIsRich) plucked from obscurity and made Minister for Truth and All that's Politically Correct, employer superannuation contribution reduced to ZERO (let those stupid workers pay for their own super), all infrastructure dismantled (after all this will provide jobs), internet will be compulsory dialup (who needs those bloody annoying fast speeds?), the Education Revolution will be dismantled and it will be compulsory to finish primary school (then the little misfits will have to work like every good, loyal, religious, God fearing "normal" Aussie), it will be legislated that NEVER again will a mere woman become PM. Yep, political correctness according to Tony Abbott.

Wonderful!

Belly, imagine if you lost your job but had $1million in the bank which allowed you to ride out the tough times. You would fare better than most, agree.

Well this is what happened to Australia during the GFC.

We had money in the bank, whereas many other nations didn't.

Now if we had rode the wave AND managed to just spend our savings, then I would agree that we fared well, BUT, not only has Krud wasted the billions we had, but he also wasted billions more that we don't have.

Now just how do your lot propose to re-pay that huge debt AND restock the cookie jar?

I know, tax, tax and more tax.