Prime Minister Julia Gillard Monday vowed to lead Labor to the next Australian election, as a poll showed her scandal-hit government is deeply unpopular and pressure mounted for an early ballot.
Dogged by allegations that lawmaker Craig Thomson had used a former employer’s credit card to pay for prostitutes before he came to parliament, Gillard moved Sunday to clear the decks by ordering him to quit the party.
She also sidelined Speaker Peter Slipper, who has been accused of sexually harassing a staffer and misusing travel entitlements, by forcing him to take indefinite leave.
Gillard said she was forced to act because of the “combined weight” of the scandals, as she rejected the idea that struggling Labor would dump her ahead of the next election, not due until 2013.
“I will be leading the Labor Party to the next election,” she told reporters in Sydney.
But she remains under intense pressure to call the election early, with a poll in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph revealing 52 percent of voters were in favour of a vote of no confidence in her government.
Carried under the headline “Julia on the brink”, the newspaper revealed the Galaxy poll of 1,019 people showed Labor’s vote had dropped to just 30 percent — from 34 percent in January.
It also found that 54 percent of voters thought that Gillard’s reluctance to demand the resignation of Thomson and Slipper was poor political judgment.
Thomson is accused of using the credit card of his former employer, a trade union, to pay for prostitutes, lavish meals and to get cash advances.
Slipper is alleged to have sexually harassed a staffer with explicit text messages and inappropriate comments, as well as misusing taxi travel vouchers.
Both men strongly deny the claims but Gillard said the allegations had challenged the public’s ability to respect parliament.
The scandals have increased speculation that Gillard, who scraped into power after 2010 elections resulted in a deadlocked parliament by forming a coalition with a Greens MP and several independents, may face a new leadership challenge.
The loss of Thomson reduces Labor’s numbers in the 150-seat House of Representatives and she must rely on the support of a Greens MP and two independents to have control of 74 votes. The opposition controls 73 votes.
Gillard saw off a leadership ballot against former prime minister Kevin Rudd in February, crushing him 71 to 31 in a Labor Party room vote, but speculation is mounting that her time is running out.
Trade Minister Craig Emerson said he had not spoken to Labor colleagues about dumping Gillard, but said there was “always chatter about this sort of thing”. He added: “Her job is safe because she is a leader with gutsy determination.”
Commentators slammed Gillard’s moves as political expediency, with The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher saying the prime minister had “decided to take out her political rubbish, not because she objected to the putrefaction but because the neighbours wouldn’t stop talking about the smell”.
The government also took a hit from mining billionaire Clive Palmer Monday, who announced he wanted to stand against Treasurer Wayne Swan in the Queensland seat of Lilley because “it’s about time we get this country moving again”.
