World media are reporting on the crisis in the Australian Labor Party, as Prime Minister Gillard calls a leadership spill for 4.30pm AEDT.
Before the spill was called, BBC News Magazine's Nick Bryant asks if Australia is “the coup capital of the world”.
He looked at recent casualites Terry Mills of the Northern Territory, Victoria's Ted Baillieu, South Australia's Isobel Redmond, as well as the less recent removals or challenges of Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Kim Beazley, and the Liberal Party's run through John Howard, Brendan Nelson, “the hugely ambitious” Malcolm Turnbull, and of course Tony Abbott.
Last century the ALP also dumped Bill Hayden, and then the man who replaced him, Bob Hawke.
Noting the NSW Labor Party has had five leaders in eight years, Bryant said “small wonder commentators refer to the "New South Wales" disease, even though it now seems like a nationwide contagion.”
The New York Times also used the C-word -- which Australian media tends to avoid -- in reporting of the recent debate over media laws:
“Ms. Gillard, who became Australia's first female prime minister in a 2010 party coup that ousted Kevin Rudd, has seen her poll ratings plummet since announcing in January that federal elections would be held in September.
"The unusually early announcement kicked off an already bruising election season, in which virtually every legislative move is being analyzed for clues to Ms. Gillard's political health.”
"Gillard's minority government has trailed in opinion polls for almost two years, with surveys this month showing she lags behind opposition leader Tony Abbott on the question of preferred prime minister.
"Labor MPs face the dilemma of putting in a new boss to woo back voters -- at the risk of deepening disaffection with a party that's been through two leadership challenges in three years -- or sticking with the nation's first female prime minister.”
US news site the Global Post's Freya Petersen reported on this morning's speculation of a leadership spill, writing that Gillard "has also struggled as Australia's first female Prime Minister and attempted to use perceptions of sexism to her advantage", describing the Australian culture as "blokey" and accusing Abbott of "repulsive double standards when it comes to misogyny and sexism."
Meanwhile, support for the Labor government is waning on the fringes of major cities where a weakening manufacturing sector is hitting working-class Australians -- predominantly Labor voters -- hard.
During the last (failed) spill, BBC's Duncan Kennedy commented: “This was never really an ideological battle between the two candidates. Both put social welfare and economic fairness first.
"Instead, it was much more about the simple matter of power - who has it and how do they wield it.
"Whilst Kevin Rudd is popular with the public, his colleagues have much less time for him. They remember him as a somewhat arrogant prime minister who ruled over a chaotic government.
Although Julia Gillard lacks his charm, they view her as a much more competent, collaborative and effective leader.”
During what the UK's Guardian called “a week of vicious bloodletting” leading up to that challenge, the New York Times described Gillard's lead over Rudd among the party leadership as “commanding but not insurmountable”.
“It is one of the most vicious battles in world politics. In one corner stands a woman prime minister, well liked by her colleagues but unpopular with the public at large. Squaring up to her from across the ring is her predecessor, a man popular with voters but loathed by the majority of his fellow MPs."
“Gillard, the country's first woman prime minister, Welsh-born but more Aussie than her Mandarin-speaking arch-rival, ought to be coasting comfortably to win a second term in government.
"Instead, the Australian electorate is watching aghast as Labor's two major political stars plot and sulk and tear each other apart in public – and fight to the death in a secret party ballot.”
