The Killing Season

After months of leadership speculation, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, the two most ambitious Labor politicians of their generation, challenged Kim Beazley and Jenny Macklin for the leadership of the Labor Party. The Christian from Queensland's Right and the atheist from Victoria's Left were Labor's new leadership team. Less than a year later, Labor was swept to victory at the 2007 Federal Election. Rudd and Gillard marketed themselves as an inseparable team, laughing off any suggestion of tension. They navigated the Global Financial Crisis that dominated the early period in Government but the cracks were starting to show. Only now is Gillard prepared to talk about the bitter disagreements behind the scenes…

In December 2009, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd left for the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, leaving behind a turbulent period in domestic politics. Action on climate change was one of the defining issues in Rudd's rise to power and with a new opposition leader hostile to his emissions trading scheme, Rudd's political credibility became linked to the outcome. But Copenhagen failed to deliver a decisive result and a deflated Rudd returned to Australia. Gillard now claims the disappointment in Copenhagen had a devastating effect on Kevin Rudd. Spooked by Tony Abbott's campaign against the Government's "great big new tax" on carbon and negative internal polling on the ETS, the Government shelved its signature climate policy. A Newspoll on 4th May showed the Government lost a million voters in a fortnight. With the 2010 Election looming, Rudd's Government moved from crisis to crisis – with the mining tax, and asylum seekers dominating the headlines, as well as concerns over rising debt. Party insiders began to contemplate a change in leadership. Now for the first time, both sides lay bare their accounts of the preparation and execution of the challenge. According to one of the players, "In terms of its professional execution… you'd have to say it was the best." In the final act of the episode, Rudd and Gillard give the inside story of their contentious closed-door meeting on the night of 23rd June 2010…

With Kevin Rudd deposed, Julia Gillard became Australia's first female Prime Minister. But the repercussions of the dramatic change of leadership cast a long shadow over her time in office. Within weeks of taking over, Gillard called an election for late August 2010. The campaign was dominated by internal leaks damaging to Gillard; Wayne Swan called them "the greatest act of political bastardry" he had ever witnessed. Gillard secured the support of the Independents and the Greens to form a minority government. However, her continued struggle with legitimacy, a carbon "tax", a flood of boats and the actions of Kevin Rudd and his supporters, dogged her Prime Ministership. Facing an election wipe-out, the Labor Caucus moved again – this time to return Kevin Rudd to power. Gillard's political career was over. The third act was complete. Did the "original sin" of the 2010 challenge make that end inevitable? Did Gillard herself – or Rudd's relentless will to return – bring Labor to that point?