Julia Gillard will challenge Kevin Rudd for the Labor leadership. If successful in a ballot to be held during a special caucus meeting at 9am tomorrow, Ms Gillard will become Australia's first woman prime minister.
Mr Rudd conceded tonight he had lost the support of a number of Labor's factions and Ms Gillard had asked him to hold a ballot.
He believed he was ''quite capable of winning this ballot, based on the soundings I have taken recently''.
''I was elected by the people of Australia to do a job, I was not elected by the factional leaders of Labor to do a job, although they might be seeking to do a job on me,'' he said.
However, it is understood Mr Rudd has lost the support of most of his party.
He said that the party would not be ''lurching to the right on the question of asylum seekers as some has counselled us to do'', if he was returned as leader. He also would not move the timetable for an emissions trading scheme.
He did not say whether Ms Gillard would remain his deputy if she failed in the ballot.
The announcement came after a series of crisis meetings in Parliament tonight, involving Mr Rudd, Ms Gillard and several Labor powerbrokers.
Earlier report by The Sydney Morning Herald's Phil Coorey:
Kevin Rudd's leadership was hanging by a thread last night after his support base vanished following a push to oust him led by Right factional operators in Victoria and South Australia.
Mr Rudd's fate was in the hands of his deputy, Julia Gillard, who had growing support among the caucus of 115 MPs and senators and an increasing number of factions.
These included the National Right, the Victorian Left and most of the NSW Right, including its kingmaker Mark Arbib.
As right-wing powerbrokers were counting numbers in an effort to encourage her to run, Ms Gillard, who all day had resisted overtures to mount a challenge, visited Mr Rudd in his office at 7.20pm.
Her office said it was just a routine scheduled meeting, the third between the pair yesterday. But the meeting was joined by senior ministers, including Anthony Albanese, Wayne Swan and Lindsay Tanner.
It was understood Ms Gillard was reluctant to have a messy challenge and it is understood there were efforts being made to push Mr Rudd to stand down.
The push to oust Mr Rudd was led by the Victorian senator David Feeney, the Victorian MP Bill Shorten, and the South Australian senator Don Farrell, all right-wing heavyweights.
Sources said they met Ms Gillard yesterday afternoon in an attempt to persuade her to run.
Source: The Canberra Times
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