Can Aussie Labor show British Labour how it's done? - UPDATED

As I type this PM Kevin Rudd is on TV giving an emergency press conference. Newsflash suspension of normal programming type press conference.

Deputy PM Julia Gillard has come to see him and they've been having a long chat this evening, which seems to have ended with her requesting a leadership contest to decide if Rudd should remain leader of the Australian Labor Party, and therefore PM. What he's saying is very familiar to British ears and sound like they've been lifted from a Gordon Clown speech. Lots of guff about 'lurching to the right' and 'I have been elected by the people of Australia' (which of course he hasn't any more than the people of Britain elected Gordon Brown - Rudd's ALP won an election which Brown's Labour didn't, but only the ALP and people in the part of Brisbane where his seat is got the chance to vote for him). What he isn't saying is whether or not Julia Gillard has said she'll stand against him. A lot of ALP members seem to prefer her to Rudd and if she did stand she's likely to be a much heftier opponent than any of the fucking lightweights who opposed, or more often didn't oppose Gordon Brown, despite being well aware of his growing unpopularity. So watch this space, and see if the ALP are able to deal with a leader and PM who's looking more and more like an electoral liability in the way that the British Labour party couldn't quite find the balls for.

UPDATE - Julia Gillard is in the contest, and personally I'd put ten bucks on her to win. I don't particularly want her to but I think she will, and I doubt she'll be worse than the alternatives. Like the UK there isn't one of them I'm happy to vote for in the federal election later this year - yes, the ALP is trying to ditch an unpopular leader before the election, not afterwards - but she might even be the least worst option.