2003 Australian Labor Party leadership spills: Difference between revisions
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Template:Histinfo A leadership spill of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), the official opposition party in the Parliament of Australia, was held on 2 December 2003. The Opposition Leader, Simon Crean, resigned as leader after losing support from his colleagues and did not contest the ballot. Mark Latham narrowly won the resulting leadership spill against Kim Beazley.
Background
Simon Crean had become leader of the Labor Party and opposition leader unopposed[1] at a leadership ballot on 11 November 2001 held to replace Kim Beazley, who had led Labor after the 1996 and 2001 elections. Crean had also been deputy leader between 1998 and 2001 and was succeeded as deputy leader by Jenny Macklin.
Despite a successful budget reply and the controversy surrounding Howard-appointed Governor-General Peter Hollingworth, Crean had a low popularity rating throughout 2003. With constant rumours over a possible challenge plaguing his leadership, Crean called a leadership spill to be held on June 16, 2003. Despite more public support for Beazley, Crean convincingly won the spill 58-34. However, by November, Crean had lost more ground to John Howard as preferred prime minister.
On 27 November 2003, a section of Crean’s senior colleagues informed him that he had lost support and should step down as leader. After “sleep[ing] on it”, Crean announced the following day that he would resign as leader. In doing so, Crean became the first Labor leader to have not contested an election since Billy Hughes was expelled from the Labor party in 1916.
Results
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The ballot was held on Tuesday 2 December in which Latham defeated Beazley by a margin of one vote (47-45).[2]
Aftermath
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Latham went on to lose the federal election in October 2004. Latham stayed on for a few months as leader until January 2005 when he stood down citing ill health. Beazley then returned to the leadership unopposed and remained leader until December 2006 when he was ousted by Kevin Rudd.