I can beat Tony: Julia

Julia Gillard says she can beat Tony Abbott in the next Federal election.

Addressing reporters in Adelaide, the Prime Minister declared:”I believe that I can lead the Labor party to that victory, if the party is united.”

She said she expects Mr Rudd to return to the back benches, without further challenges, if he is defeated in a Labor leadership ballot at 10 am Monday.

But Kevin Rudd, her likely – but still undeclared – challenger in that contest, says Tony  Abbott  is on track to beat Julia Gillard in the next Federal election.

Conservative parties, led by Tony Abbott, have established a clear and persistent lead over the Gillard government in the nation’s opinion polls.

That led Mr Rudd to say: “I do not believe that Julia Gillard can lead the Australian Labor party to success in the next election,” Mr Rudd said.

“There is one overriding question for my caucus colleagues, and that is who is best placed to defeat Tony Abbott at the next election,” the former Foreign Minister said in Washington, as he quit, saying he had lost the confidence of the Prime Minister.

Julia Gillard, though, said the Rudd government had entered “a period of  paralysis” before she challenged, and defeated him, as Prime Minister, in 2010.

At her press conference in Adelaide, Ms Gillard paid tribute to the campaigning skills she said Mr Rudd had displayed, before becoming Prime Minister.

But she said “different skills” were needed in government, describing the Rudd government’s decision making as chaotic.

“My focus is on the future, not on the past,” Ms Gillard said.

But she dismissed Mr Rudd’s talk of “faceless men” running the Labor party as “incredibly insulting” to her Labor colleagues.