Leadership spill

In Australian politics, a leadership spill (sometimes also known as a party room spill) is a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. A spill may involve all leadership positions (leader and deputy leader in both houses), or just the leader.

A leadership election may result in a new leader, or may confirm the status quo. If the party in question is in government, the election of a new leader will result in a new Prime Minister, Premier or Chief Minister; if the party is the opposition, the election of a new leader will result in a new Opposition Leader.

Process

In the Westminster system of government, the leader of the party which forms a government becomes the Prime Minister, while the leader of the largest party not in government becomes leader of the Opposition. Contenders for the role of leader of a major party usually (but not always) come from the cabinet or shadow cabinet.

A leadership spill occurs when a member or members of the parliamentary party feel that the leader is taking the party in an undesirable direction or is simply not delivering on promises made to those who elected the leader, and does not have the numbers to back his or her position. A spill may be triggered by consistently poor opinion polls.

A spill can be initiated by the party leader in office, usually in the hope of gaining a fresh mandate to quell dissenting voices in the party. It may occur at any time, leaving the person in the leadership position always 'on notice'.

Federal ALP changes

Following his return to the leadership of the Australian Labor Party in 2013, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd sought changes to the party's rules so that leadership spills would be more difficult to launch in future. This includes the requirement for 75% support within the Australian Labor Party Caucus for a special leadership ballot against a sitting Labor prime minister, or 60% against an opposition leader. The changes, which also provided for equally weighted voting rights between the caucus and party rank and file members in future leadership ballots, were subsequently adopted by Labor.

Notable spills

Federal

Spill date	Party	Status	Contenders	Outcome
10 March 1971	Liberal	Government	John Gorton (Prime Minister) William McMahon (Foreign Minister)	Gorton retained the leadership of the Liberal Party after a leadership spill resulted in a tie. However, Gorton then resigned, saying that a tie was not a vote of confidence, and McMahon was elected his successor.
8 April 1982	Liberal	Government	Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser Backbencher Andrew Peacock	Fraser beat Peacock's challenge for the leadership of the Liberal Party, 54–27 votes.
16 July 1982	Labor	Opposition	Opposition Leader Bill Hayden Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Employment and Youth Bob Hawke	Hayden beat Hawke to retain the leadership of the Labor Party, 42–37 but resigned in February 1983 in Hawke's favor, just one month before the ALP returned to government in the 1983 federal election.
9 May 1989	Liberal	Opposition	Opposition Leader John Howard Deputy Leader Andrew Peacock	Peacock won the Liberal leadership with 44 votes to Howard's 27, becoming leader for the second time. A simultaneous spill took place in the National Party room resulting in Charles Blunt replacing Ian Sinclair.
3 June 1991	Labor	Government	Prime Minister Bob Hawke Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Paul Keating	Keating challenged Hawke for the Labor leadership, losing by 44 votes to Hawke's 66. He resigned to the backbench.
20 December 1991	Labor	Government	Prime Minister Bob Hawke Backbencher Paul Keating	Keating launched a second leadership challenge against Hawke. This effort was successful, with Keating winning the Labor leadership by 5 votes.
May 1994	Liberal	Opposition	Opposition Leader John Hewson Shadow Treasurer Alexander Downer	Downer won 43 votes against Hewson's 36 votes for the Liberal party leadership.
16 June 2003	Labor	Opposition	Opposition Leader Simon Crean Backbencher (and former Opposition Leader) Kim Beazley	Crean defeated Beazley's challenge 58-34.
2 December 2003	Labor	Opposition	Backbencher (and former Opposition Leader) Kim Beazley Assistant Shadow Treasurer Mark Latham	Following poor poll performance, Crean was urged to step down by senior colleagues. He agreed to do so on 28 November 2003. The ballot was held on Tuesday 2 December in which Latham defeated Beazley by a margin of two votes (47-45).
4 December 2006	Labor	Opposition	Opposition Leader Kim Beazley Shadow Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd	Labor frontbencher Kevin Rudd launched a challenge against Beazley and won the Labor leadership 49-39.
16 September 2008	Liberal	Opposition	Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson Shadow Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull	Turnbull succeeded in his challenge to Nelson, 45-41.
1 December 2009	Liberal	Opposition	Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey Backbencher Tony Abbott (had resigned one month earlier as Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs)	On 26 November 2009, following division within the Liberal-National coalition about carbon emissions trading, Kevin Andrews moved a spill motion against Turnbull's leadership, which was defeated by a vote of 48 to 35. Abbott announced on 27 November—one day after Turnbull survived Kevin Andrews' spill motion—that he would challenge Turnbull for the leadership. Abbott committed to withdrawing his candidacy if Joe Hockey was to challenge. He changed his position after Hockey refused to oppose an emissions trading scheme outright and suggested a conscience vote on the Rudd Government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Hockey was eliminated in the first round of voting. Abbott defeated Turnbull with a narrow margin of 42–41 votes.
24 June 2010	Labor	Government	Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard	First term Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was replaced by his deputy Julia Gillard, months prior to the 2010 federal election.
27 February 2012	Labor	Government	Prime Minister Julia Gillard Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd	Kevin Rudd resigned as Foreign Minister seeking to overturn the 2010 spill result but Julia Gillard retained the Labor leadership with 71 votes to Rudd's 31. Rudd moved to the backbench.
21 March 2013	Labor	Government	Prime Minister Julia Gillard	Julia Gillard called a snap ballot following Simon Crean publicly calling for a Labor leadership ballot. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd vowed not to stand in the challenge, and as a result Julia Gillard was re-elected unopposed.
26 June 2013	Labor	Government	Prime Minister Julia Gillard Backbencher Kevin Rudd	Rudd retook the Labor Party leadership in a snap spill, defeating Julia Gillard by a 57–45 margin. Gillard resigned from Parliament at the subsequent 2013 federal election, in which the Rudd's Government was defeated by Abbott's Coalition.
9 February 2015	Liberal	Government	Prime Minister Tony Abbott	A motion to bring about a leadership spill in the Liberal Party is defeated 61–39, with Tony Abbott remaining as Prime Minister.
14 September 2015	Liberal	Government	Prime Minister Tony Abbott Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull	Turnbull defeated Prime Minister Tony Abbott, 54 votes to 44. A second ballot the same evening saw Julie Bishop re-elected as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, 70 votes to 30 over Kevin Andrews.

States

Queensland

• 1987: Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen of the National Party was defeated by Mike Ahern.

South Australia

• November 1996: Premier Dean Brown was beaten by John Olsen for the leadership of the South Australian Liberals.
• April 2007: Martin Hamilton-Smith defeated opposition leader Iain Evans for the SA Liberal leadership.
• July 2009: Two consecutive spills in the Liberal Party led to the ousting of Hamilton-Smith, replaced by Isobel Redmond.

New South Wales

• December 2009: Nathan Rees (Labor) was beaten by Kristina Keneally, to become New South Wales's first female Premier.

Northern Territory

• March 2013: Adam Giles replaced Chief Minister Terry Mills as leader of the Country Liberal Party while Mills was on a trade mission, becoming the first indigenous head of government of an Australian state or territory.
• 2 February 2015: Adam Giles was ousted after a parliamentary meeting voted 9 votes to 5 to replace him with the minister for primary industry and mines, Willem Westra van Holthe. As he controlled enough votes to bring down the minority government, Giles refused to resign and instead promoted Westra van Holthe to the position of deputy leader.

See also

• Leadership review - similar process in Canada

External links

• Australia: Coup capital of the democratic world (BBC News, 14th September 2015)