Crean calls for spill of Labor leadership
Date March 21, 2013 – 1:12PM 189 reading now
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Dan Harrison
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Labor Minister Simon Crean voices his frustration with the leadership speculation. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Simon Crean has asked Prime Minister Julia Gillard to call a spill of the Labor leadership.
Mr Crean said: “Something needs to be done to break this deadlock . . . for once and for all.”
”I am asking her to call a spill of all leadership positions,” Mr Crean told journalists in Canberra. ”I will not be standing for the leader. I will be putting myself forward in the leadership team for the deputy leader.”
Mr Crean, who is the Arts Minister, said former prime minister Kevin Rudd had no alternative but to stand for the leadership. He said he would be supporting Mr Rudd.
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Asked if Mr Rudd had enough support to become leader, Mr Crean said: ”I wouldn’t be doing this if I did not believe there was the mood and the need for change within the party.”
”It seems to me the party . . . is in a stalemate position,” he said. ”Something must be done to resolve this issue once and for all.”
”We can’t win from the position we’re in in the polls,” he said. But he said Labor’s woes were not only about leadership.
”People have got to believe that we have conviction. What we have to do is to take people with us. That means being prepared to argue the case.”
Mr Crean said that when he informed Ms Gillard of his decision she had told him she would not be calling a spill.
He said the caucus needed to act ”expeditiously, decisively and conclusively”.
”I am urging Mr Rudd to put his name forward in the interests of breaking the deadlock.”
He said he would resign from the ministry if Ms Gillard won a leadership ballot.
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One thought on “Crean calls for spill of Labor leadership”
Neville
21 March, 2013
Should Gillard be rolled, she will more than likely walk,
leavimg labor down on the numbers, leaving the gate open
for Abbott to take the reins.