Frequent Changes in Australian Prime Ministers: An Analysis

Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
POLITICAL SCIENCE
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1POLITICAL SCIENCE
Australian politics has been quite unstable for some time now, at least in terms of its
election of prime ministers. The Australian general elections take place after every three years,
which is shorter than general election than most of the other democracies around the world. This
creates a situation where the politicians and the political parties in Australia have to start vying
for the next election and its preparation within just one or one and half year after one election.
This is one of the source of political over activeness in Australian scenario which sometimes
gives rise to chaos and crisis which in turn produces instability (Primeministers.naa.gov.au
2018).
The Australian people elect their Member of Parliaments who then selects the Prime
Minister. Therefore, the system is adopted from the Westminster system. In Australia there are
mainly two political camps that dominate the political scenario of Australia, the Coalition of the
Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia on one side and the Australian
Labor Party on the other side. From 2007 onwards the Australian political scenario has become
more unpredictable, the voting pattern of the people have changed, and there is unpredictability
about whom they may vote for, with more number of people voting for smaller parties or
independent nominees.
The incidents of political “dumping or back stabbing” has increased in Australia, when a
Prime Minister is removed from the office due to political rivalry even before he or she can
complete her term as Prime Minister and go to the next vote. During the economic recession
Australia was one of the country that was more or less unaffected by the economic slowdown,
leading many economists to term it as “economic miracle”. Till 2007 Australia had only 4 Prime
Ministers but post that time there have been 5 Prime Ministers in the country which according to
many political thinkers reflect the unstable nature of contemporary politics in Australia.

2POLITICAL SCIENCE
Kevin Michael Rudd was selected as the Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 for 3 years,
completing his full term for probably the last time as of yet in Australian politics. He is a
member of the Australian Labor Party. In 2007 Labor party won the election by great margins,
and Rudd was elected the Prime Minister of the new government. After coming to power one of
the first thing done by Rudd was to apologize to the native Australians for their “lost
generation”. Although some important steps were taken by the Rudd’s government in bringing
some much needed changes in the country, however by 2010 his popularity came down by
massive margins among Australians for several reasons including the “Resource Super Profit
Tax” delay of the “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme”. Within the labor party itself the leader
ship of Rudd was questioned and his own deputy Julia Gillard announced a challenge to his
Prime Minister-ship. Rudd himself resigned following the crisis and Gillard was elected as the
Prime minister without opposition. She became the Prime Minister even before the general
elections were held because Rudd stepped down from the position. However, in the next 2010
general elections, for the first time since 1940 a hung parliament was seen in Australia and
Gillard could hardly come back to power and maintain her Prime Minister-ship with the help of
one “Green” MP and three “independent” MPs’.
The Prime Ministerial stint of Gillard could not go on for a long time, and soon she again
lost her position. This time Rudd took the opportunity of grabbing away power back to himself
after a leadership spill again in 2013. Like the elections at United States of America in Australia
as well there are Presidential debates in big news channels. In 2013 clearly the popularity of the
Labor party was at its lowest, and there were clear indications that there was going to be a
change in the course of political scenario in Australia. Rudd had challenged Gillard post the