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February 22, 2012 4:43 PM EST
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned on Wednesday after a row with fellow party member Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Rudd, who was himself the Prime Minister from 2007 until 2010, when he was replaced mid-term by Gillard in a Labor Party coup. In Australia, the prime minister is picked by the House of Representatives, and the party felt it had a better chance at re-election with Gillard than with Rudd.
Recently, the two were again silently sparring over the leadership of the Labor Party. There were rumors that Rudd had been trying to cull support to challenge Gillard as party leader.
"There needed to be a lancing of this leadership boil, if I can put it in those crude terms," Peter Beattie, the former head of the Australian Labor Party, said on PM Radio. "Resigning as the foreign minister is the right thing to do."
"For too long, Kevin Rudd has been putting his own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader Labor movement and the country as a whole, and that needs to stop," Gillard's deputy Wayne Swan said in a statement.
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In his resignation speech, made from Washington D.C., where he was on an official state visit, Rudd noted that without Gillard's trust and confidence he could not properly do his job. He added (without much subtlety) that he was upset when Gillard did not come to his aid when his reputation was questioned.
"In recent days, [Regional Australia Minister Simon] Crean and a number of other faceless men have publicly attacked my integrity," he said.
"When challenged today on these attacks, Prime Minister Gillard chose not to repudiate them. I can only reluctantly conclude that she therefore shares these views."
Gillard said she would respond to the comments on Thursday.
Full text of Rudd's resignation speech below:
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great sadness that I announce that I will resign as Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs.
I am sad because I love this job. I'm totally dedicated to the work that we are doing in Australia's name around the world, and I believe that we have achieved many good results for Australia, and I'm proud of them.
It's therefore been for me a great privilege to serve our country as Foreign Minister, to represent our people abroad, and I thank the people of our country for their support as I have discharged these responsibilities.
But while I am sad to leave this office, I am sadder still that it has come to this.
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