Labore party faces yet another dispiriting opinion poll on the third anniversary of Kevin Rudd's removal from the prime ministership. Source: News Limited
A KEY Labor backbencher has called for a leadership ballot this week as the best way to resolve party tensions as Julia Gillard maintains she still has the strong support of her caucus.
NSW MP Stephen Jones this morning said the leadership tensions between Ms Gillard and Kevin Rudd had to be put to bed once and for all.
"I think it has to be resolved and it has to be resolved by the end of the week," Mr Jones - a Rudd backer - said.
"Probably the best way to resolve it is a ballot."
The call opens the way for a leadership challenge to occur via a special caucus meeting called via a petition with the signatures of 30 MPs.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists she has the support of the Caucus and said the leadership question was settled back in March. Picture: Kym Smith
A defiant Ms Gillard this morning said she "absolutely" had the support of Caucus.
At a brief doorstop at Parliament House, Ms Gillard was asked what her message was to MPs.
"We settled all of this in March," she said.
She said she had other things on her mind this week.
"The focus for me this week is on our schools reforms, which are in the Senate," she said.
"What I want to leave this week having achieved is better schools for our nation, which means a better future for our nation.
"That will be my focus."
PM Julia Gillard is adamant that the leadership issues were settled in March.
Renewed speculation over the Labor leadership comes as the party faces yet another dispiriting opinion poll on the third anniversary of Kevin Rudd's removal from the prime ministership.
The latest Newspoll, published in The Australian on Monday, shows Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has opened his biggest lead ever over Ms Gillard as preferred prime minister.
As well, the poll shows Labor heading for a massive election defeat with the prospect of its lower house representation being halved in the next parliament.
Greg Combet has today said the leadership issue has to be resolved this week for the good of the party.
The Climate Change Minister said the party could not go to the election with such disunity.
Greg Combet says the leadership issue needs to be resolved this week for the good of the party. Picture: Gary Ramage
"We have got to put this to bed because we can't go to an election with this speculation around," Mr Combet told ABC radio.
The Australian Newpoll reveals another bad poll for the PM with Labor's primary vote slipping below 30%.
Mr Combet said Julia Gillard was not going to step aside and Mr Rudd needed to decide if he would challenge or not.
"It is imperative the Labor Party comes out of this week unified and we are able to go to an election with clear air to sell our message," he said.
"Just imagine the TV packages every night during the election campaign with three people vying for the prime ministership ... that would just not be good."
Mr Combet said the Labor Party needed to relearn how to be disciplined.
Asked if Julia Gillard was a good prime minister he said: "She is a good person to work with".
Senior Labor figure Craig Emerson has also warned his colleagues they cannot leave the final week of parliament as a disunited party.
Dr Emerson insists Labor should stick with Ms Gillard.
"We must be united behind prime minister Gillard," he told ABC radio.
"We cannot go to an election as disunited party. We cannot leave this week as a disunited party."
Dr Emerson said the party's leadership should have been settled a long time ago and called for internal destabilisation to end.
Arriving at Canberra airport this morning Labor Queensland backbencher Graham Perrett said this morning the leadership issue had been resolved and Ms Gillard would remain Prime Minister.
Asked about Labor's worsening position in the polls he said: "I don't give a rats about polls".
Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie, who called on Bob Hawke to solve the leadership tensions between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, said Labor would lose the election unless the issue was resolved.
"Like any member of the Labor Party I want to see it have a realistic chance of winning the next election," Mr Beattie said.
"The bottom line is you can't win an election if you are divided."
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said the union movement was behind Ms Gillard "and we're not going to get involved in the leadership issue".
"It's not appropriate for the ACTU to get involved in it.
"It's a matter for the Labor Party."
But Sally McManus, secretary of the NSW and ACT branch of the Australian Services Union, has sought the feedback from her members.
"As a union who is affiliated to the ALP I want to ensure our members' views are reflected in any discussions I have on this issue," Ms McManus said on Twitter.
"We are committed to being a highly democratic union and we will seek the views of members directly on important issues, as we did on the issue of marriage equality."
The ASU's most senior figure in federal parliament is cabinet minister Brendan O'Connor, a former assistant national secretary. The union is represented on the ALP national executive by assistant national secretary Linda White.
Tony Abbott has today rallied his troops and attacked Labor's leadership woes at a meeting of the Coalition's shadow cabinet.
Senior coalition frontbenchers met in Canberra earlier today for the last shadow cabinet meeting in Parliament House before the September 14 election.
Mr Abbott thanked his colleagues for their work and said the upcoming election would be the most important "in a generation".
"Let me just say how proud I am of all of you," Mr Abbott said.
"I know that all of you will make outstanding ministers in a government, should we get to form a government after the 14th of September."
Voters will look back on the Gillard government as a "bad dream", Mr Abbott said.
"I am confident that, should we form a government, within quite a short space of time people will look back on these days and they will say it was a bad dream that has passed in the night," Mr Abbott said.
Liberal Party pamphlets are also targeting Gillard loyalists, with families Minister Jenny Macklin the subject of a new advertising campaign in her electorate of Jagajaga.
"Julia Gillard is still in power because of Jenny Macklin's backing," the flyer states.
The Greens have also weighed into the latest Labor leadership crisis, arguing Australians should go to the polls if Kevin Rudd wrestles the job of prime minister from Julia Gillard this week.
Greens MP Adam Bandt said his party wouldn't rule out going to the Governor-General and asking for an election if Mr Rudd took over.
He said Labor factional leaders should not assume they could "do whatever they liked with the prime ministership" and others would fall into line.
"I think if there's another leadership change there would be a real question as to whether we ought to go to an early election," Mr Bandt said.
"Other members of the crossbench have said that they believe an early election would be in order and that's certainly something, from the Greens perspective, that we'd be considering."
That would be especially the case if Mr Rudd changed the party's stance on climate change, he said.
Mr Bandt said ordinary Australians were "over it" when it came to the leadership speculation.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Andrew Leigh dismissed the possibility of a challenge, saying Parliament House was filled with "petty gossip".
He said Ms Gillard was an "extraordinarily gutsy lady" and would still be leader at the end of the week.
He said he believed Mr Rudd when he said there were no circumstances in which he would return to the job.
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