I like KR... I think the way the labor party went about taking KR out was wrong. Like KR said - Australia elected him to do a job.  I'll vote for her as I vote labor - but that is with a bitter taste in my mouth.  Ranga will be good, but she didn't get there by her own achievements :(

I'm pretty disappointed by the whole thing.  As others have said, our political system is crap the way an elected prime minister, elected by the people, can be removed by his/her party.  Fare enough if you are doing a terrible job or something, but he really wasn't so bad, and while his popularity was down i find it hard to believe the other guy (tony abbott) would have won the up coming election.

Far less left then they use to be. Many of initial reforms that modernised our economy such as the floating of the dollar and deregulation was done initially by the labor party. However they are as you can imagine in bed with the unions.

Did you ever think that it wasn't about losing the election, although this was increasingly likely, but rather about securing as much Labor power as possible, and not giving the greens too many seats?

I hope the Greens continue to grow in power, and im sure they will if Labor are too similar to Liberals.

Well theres a huge upswing in Greens support thankfully. I read a lot of there policies on their website and I think I'll be voting for them next election. As are many of my friends and family (several of who are traditional labor supporters).

I doubt that Gillard will stop that momentum, maybe slow it slightly. Though its still too early to tell.

Hey we got our first female Prime Minister too...just last month actually. Power to equality, I guess.

Exactly.  Support for the greens won't change by removing Kevin Rudd and replacing him with Julia Gillard. As she keeps telling us, policies won't be changing, as the government is "strong" but has simply "lost it's way". Whatever the F$%* that means...

right i see,

do you just have two major parties then,i always though the aussies were pretty conservative rather than labour

but obviously i don't know,i guess it swings like most countries

Yes it does swing. The Australian Labor Party however is the oldest labor party in the world for example.

Not to mention she was part of the small group that proposed all of the policies that made the backlash again Rudd possible. Although kicking Rudd out also had a lot to do with his supposedly near autocratic style of leadership.

The ALP in my mind is still in a hard place, though the change in leadership will allow Gillard to oppose or ammend some of Rudds policies (look at how shes treating the super profits tax) regardless of the fact as I said, that she and Swan had a lot to do with the policies in the first place. Plus she will benefit from being a woman and the warm fuzzy feelings of equality that conjures.

The increase in the support for the Greens can't come soon enough.