It's not every day a popular elected Australian Prime Minister gets booted out of office by his own party just months before a general election. It would probably rate as the second most shocking event in Australian political history, beaten only by Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam being sacked by the Governor General.
I wonder if Julia will ever live down the accusation that she 'rolled the Prime Minister' or 'stabbed him in the back'. When veteran reporter Laurie Oaks asked her those tricky questions, she never faltered - although unsmiling, she answered them calmly and looked him straight in the eye. But we all want to know what happened and by being elusive and refusing to tell makes us all the more curious.
Laurie Oaks put it to her that on the night of the leadership challenge, that she did a deal with Rudd on the leadership handover - one that she reneged on later that same night.
"Can I ask you is it true that Mr Rudd told you that night that he was working towards an October election" Oaks asked. And then
"Is it true that Mr Rudd indicated to you that if closer to the elction polling showed that he was an impediment to the re-election of the government, he would voluntarily stand aside."
Her response was "I've made it very, very clear that I will never be speaking publicly about my discussions with Kevin Rudd on that night, I think that's an appropriate mark of respect between colleagues. It's not my intention to canvass any of the matters that were discussed in that room. We went into that discussion on the basis that it was a confidential discussion between colleagues and I intend to respect that confidence for the rest of my life". Wow!
Julia is now Prime Minister but she wasn't elected by the people. I think we have the right to know what happened and bugger professional confidences.
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