Australia got its first woman Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who vowed Thursday to end division over a controversial mining tax, resurrect a carbon trade scheme and call elections within months.
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an ignominious exit, quitting just before the Labour Party was to dump him in an internal ballot less than three years after a stunning 2007 election victory.
The Rudd government’s dramatic slide in support this year sparked fears within the ruling party of electoral defeat in a poll expected around October.
Bookies put a Gillard government as outright favourites to win.