WTF is happening today, Australia. The federal government is currently about as stable as Carrie Mathison circa Homeland Season One, Episode 09 after Senior Cabinet Minister Simon Crean dropped a bombshell in a press conference calling for Julia Gillard to spill leadership of the Australian Labor Party.
Crean told journalists, “I am asking her to call a spill off all leadership positions… I will not be standing for the leader. I will be putting myself forward in the leadership team for the deputy leader.”
He said, “If the prime minister does not agree to it, which I expect she won’t, then I urge members of caucus to petition in the appropriate way for the calling of such a meeting.”
Crean appealed to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to contest the leadership, stating “I am urging Mr Rudd to put his name forward.” – something that wouldn’t be entirely surprising considering the Five Completely Tenuous Tell-Tale Signs That Kevin Rudd May or May Not Challenge Julia Gillard For The Labor Leadership that we laid out yesterday, after a scourge of incendiary #Auspol rumours were circulating from Canberra.
At the time of writing, Tony Abbott is moving a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister at Question Time, pulling out one of Daniel Day Lewis’s Abraham Lincoln’s best known sound bytes: A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Watch it live via the ABC News website, and let me give a shout out to Pedestrian’s time-poor graphic designer Drizzle for quickly whipping this up in about 7 seconds:
Pop culture reference!
Main photo by William West for AFP via Getty Images.
