<p>Australia’s first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Thursday survived a leadership challenge within her party emerging victorious in a vote after her rival Kevin Rudd made a last-minute decision not to run against her.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Gillard, 51, was elected unopposed at a meeting of the Labor Caucus following her dramatic announcement to call a leadership ballot as internal unrest mounted in the party ahead of a general election in September.<br /><br />Gillard threw her job open for contest after senior cabinet minister Simon Crean asked to step aside and clear the way for former leader Rudd to head the minority government.<br />Rudd, who was ruthlessly ousted by Gillard in mid-2010, indicated he did not have the numbers to topple the premier, after being roundly beaten when he resigned as foreign minister and launched a previous challenge in February 2012.<br /><br />“I’m not prepared to dishonour my word... others take such commitments lightly, I do not,” he said just minutes before Labor parliamentarians were due to vote. “I have also said that the only circumstances under which I would consider a return to leadership would be if there was an overwhelming majority of the parliamentary party requesting such a return, drafting me to return and the position was vacant,” said Rudd.<br /><br />“I am here to inform you that those circumstances do not exist,” he said. With Rudd out of the running, the ballot went ahead with Gillard retaining the leadership unopposed.<br />“Today the leadership of our political party has been settled and has been settled in the most conclusive fashion possible,” she said.<br /><br />“The whole business is completely at an end. It has ended now. The government has a plan for the nation’s future and we plan to get on with it,” Gillard said.<br />She said her position as Labor leader has been emphatically confirmed after Rudd failed to nominate against her.</p>
<p>Australia’s first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Thursday survived a leadership challenge within her party emerging victorious in a vote after her rival Kevin Rudd made a last-minute decision not to run against her.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Gillard, 51, was elected unopposed at a meeting of the Labor Caucus following her dramatic announcement to call a leadership ballot as internal unrest mounted in the party ahead of a general election in September.<br /><br />Gillard threw her job open for contest after senior cabinet minister Simon Crean asked to step aside and clear the way for former leader Rudd to head the minority government.<br />Rudd, who was ruthlessly ousted by Gillard in mid-2010, indicated he did not have the numbers to topple the premier, after being roundly beaten when he resigned as foreign minister and launched a previous challenge in February 2012.<br /><br />“I’m not prepared to dishonour my word... others take such commitments lightly, I do not,” he said just minutes before Labor parliamentarians were due to vote. “I have also said that the only circumstances under which I would consider a return to leadership would be if there was an overwhelming majority of the parliamentary party requesting such a return, drafting me to return and the position was vacant,” said Rudd.<br /><br />“I am here to inform you that those circumstances do not exist,” he said. With Rudd out of the running, the ballot went ahead with Gillard retaining the leadership unopposed.<br />“Today the leadership of our political party has been settled and has been settled in the most conclusive fashion possible,” she said.<br /><br />“The whole business is completely at an end. It has ended now. The government has a plan for the nation’s future and we plan to get on with it,” Gillard said.<br />She said her position as Labor leader has been emphatically confirmed after Rudd failed to nominate against her.</p>