Labor leadership:the phony war ends

The phony war is over.

Kevin Rudd has quit, saying he cannot act as Foreign Minister without the support of the Prime Minister.

He said Julia Gillard had chosen “not to repudiate” attacks that Simon Crean – a senior minister – and others had made against him.

He could only assume that Ms Gillard agreed with them.

However Ms Gillard said later that Mr Rudd had never raised the matter with her.

She said Kevin Rudd had had been a strong and effective Foreign Minister, and she was sorry that he had resigned.

The Prime Minister said she would hold a press conference tomorrow (Thursday) to “make a further statement.”

In a carefully prepared speech, delivered in Washington,  Mr Rudd delivered an ummistakeable attack on Ms Gillard’s participation in the 2010  putsch, in which he, himself, was deposed as Prime Minister.

He declared that he would “act honestly.”

“There is no way I will ever be party to a stealth attack on an elected Prime Minister,” Mr Rudd declared.

“We all know that that was wrong – and must never happen again,” he added.

“Australia must be governed by the people, not by the factions, not by the faceless men,” he said, boldly.

Mr Rudd promised a statement on his own future before Parliament resumes on Monday.

He said that would follow consultations with his family and his colleagues.

Mr Rudd said recent, unresolved, leadership tension had shaken business confidence in Australia.

It was also damaging his friend Anna Bligh, who is fighting the fight of her life, to survive as Queensland Premier.

Tony Abbott, responded swiftly to Mr Rudd’s resignation, saying the former Foreign Minister had confirmed both that “faceless men” ran the Labor Party and that only the Coalition could give Australia the government it deserves.