Leadership spill

In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply spill) is a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. A spill may involve all leadership positions (leader and deputy leader in both houses), or just the leader. Where a rival to the existing leader calls for a spill, it may also be called a leadership challenge.

In Australian English the use of "spill" in this context has a long lineage with Oxford University Press tracing its first recorded appearance to a Canberra Times article dated 20 August 1945.

A leadership election may result in a new leader, or may confirm the status quo. If the party in question is in government, the election of a new leader will result in a new Prime Minister, Premier or Chief Minister; if the party is the opposition, the election of a new leader will result in a new Opposition Leader.

Process

In the Westminster system of government, the leader of the party which forms a government becomes the Prime Minister, while the leader of the largest party not in government becomes leader of the Opposition. Contenders for the role of leader of a major party usually (but not always) come from the cabinet or shadow cabinet.

A leadership spill occurs when a member or members of the parliamentary party feel that the leader is taking the party in an undesirable direction or is simply not delivering on promises made to those who elected the leader, and does not have the numbers to back his or her position. A spill may be triggered by consistently poor opinion polls.

A spill can be initiated by the party leader in office, usually in the hope of gaining a fresh mandate to quell dissenting voices in the party. It may occur at any time, leaving the person in the leadership position always 'on notice'.

Federal ALP changes

Following his return to the leadership of the Australian Labor Party in 2013, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd sought changes to the party's rules so that leadership spills would be more difficult to launch in future. This includes the requirement for 75% support within the Australian Labor Party Caucus for a special leadership ballot against a sitting Labor prime minister, or 60% against an opposition leader. The changes, which also provided for equally weighted voting rights between the caucus and party rank and file members in future leadership ballots, were subsequently adopted by Labor.

Notable intra-term spills

The following spills occurred while the leader was serving their term, rather than in the aftermath of an unsuccessful election when their term would come to an end. Colours denote the party in which the spill occurred. Blue represents the Liberal party, red the Labor party, and green the National party.

Federal

Spill date	Party	Status	Contenders	Outcome
10 March 1971	Liberal	Government	John Gorton (Prime Minister) William McMahon (Foreign Minister)	Gorton had faced a leadership challenge in November 1969 and prevailed. At this vote, he retained the leadership of the Liberal Party after a leadership spill resulted in a 33-33 tie. However, Gorton then resigned, saying that a tie was not a vote of confidence, and McMahon was elected his successor.
8 April 1982	Liberal	Government	Malcolm Fraser (Prime Minister) Andrew Peacock (Backbencher)	Fraser beat Peacock's challenge for the leadership of the Liberal Party, 54–27 votes.
16 July 1982	Labor	Opposition	Bill Hayden (Opposition Leader) Bob Hawke (Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Employment and Youth)	Hayden beat Hawke to retain the leadership of the Labor Party, 42–37 but resigned in February 1983 in Hawke's favor, just one month before the ALP returned to government in the 1983 federal election.
9 May 1989	Liberal	Opposition	John Howard (Opposition Leader) Andrew Peacock (Deputy Leader)	Peacock won the Liberal leadership with 44 votes to Howard's 27, becoming leader for the second time.
9 May 1989	National	Opposition (coalition with Liberal Party)	Ian Sinclair (Party Leader) Charles Blunt (Shadow Minister)	A simultaneous spill took place in the National Party room resulting in Charles Blunt replacing Ian Sinclair.
3 June 1991	Labor	Government	Bob Hawke (Prime Minister) Paul Keating (Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer)	Following Hawke's failure to honour the Kirribilli Agreement of 1988, in which he promised to hand over the the Labor leadership to Keating, Keating challenged Hawke. He lost by 44 votes to Hawke's 66. He resigned to the backbench.
20 December 1991	Labor	Government	Bob Hawke (Prime Minister) Paul Keating (Backbencher)	With Hawke's public support having fallen to record lows, Keating launched a second leadership challenge. This effort was successful, with Keating winning the Labor leadership by 5 votes, 56-51.
May 1994	Liberal	Opposition	John Hewson (Opposition Leader) Alexander Downer (Shadow Treasurer)	Downer won 43 votes against Hewson's 36 votes for the Liberal party leadership.
16 June 2003	Labor	Opposition	Simon Crean (Opposition Leader) Kim Beazley (Backbencher and former Opposition Leader)	Crean defeated Beazley's challenge 58-34.
2 December 2003	Labor	Opposition	Kim Beazley (Backbencher and former Opposition Leader) Mark Latham (Shadow Treasurer)	Following poor poll performance, Crean was urged to step down by senior colleagues. He agreed to do so on 28 November 2003. The ballot was held on Tuesday 2 December in which Latham defeated Beazley by a margin of two votes (47-45).
4 December 2006	Labor	Opposition	Kim Beazley (Opposition Leader) Kevin Rudd (Shadow Foreign Minister)	Labor frontbencher Kevin Rudd launched a challenge against Beazley, prompting Beazley to call a spill for all leadership positions within the party. Rudd won the Labor leadership 49-39.
16 September 2008	Liberal	Opposition	Brendan Nelson (Opposition Leader) Malcolm Turnbull (Shadow Treasurer)	Turnbull succeeded in his challenge to Nelson, 45-41.
1 December 2009	Liberal	Opposition	Malcolm Turnbull (Opposition Leader) Joe Hockey (Shadow Treasurer) Tony Abbott (Backbencher who had resigned shortly beforehand as Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs)	On 26 November 2009, following division within the Liberal-National coalition about carbon emissions trading, Kevin Andrews moved a spill motion against Turnbull's leadership, which was defeated by a vote of 48 to 35. Abbott announced on 27 November—one day after Turnbull survived Kevin Andrews' spill motion—that he would challenge Turnbull for the leadership. Abbott committed to withdrawing his candidacy if Joe Hockey was to challenge. He changed his position after Hockey refused to oppose an emissions trading scheme outright and suggested a conscience vote on the Rudd Government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Hockey was eliminated in the first round of voting. Abbott defeated Turnbull with a narrow margin of 42–41 votes.
24 June 2010	Labor	Government	Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister) Julia Gillard (Deputy Prime Minister)	First term Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was replaced by his deputy Julia Gillard, months prior to the 2010 federal election.
27 February 2012	Labor	Government	Julia Gillard (Prime Minister) Kevin Rudd (Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister)	Kevin Rudd resigned as Foreign Minister seeking to overturn the 2010 spill result but Julia Gillard retained the Labor leadership with 71 votes to Rudd's 31. Rudd moved to the backbench.
21 March 2013	Labor	Government	Julia Gillard (Prime Minister)	Julia Gillard called a snap ballot following Simon Crean publicly calling for a Labor leadership ballot. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd vowed not to stand in the challenge, and as a result Julia Gillard was re-elected unopposed.
26 June 2013	Labor	Government	Julia Gillard (Prime Minister) Kevin Rudd (Backbencher and former Prime Minister)	Rudd retook the Labor Party leadership in a snap spill, defeating Julia Gillard by a 57–45 margin. Gillard resigned from Parliament at the subsequent 2013 federal election, in which the Rudd's Government was defeated by Abbott's Coalition.
9 February 2015	Liberal	Government	Tony Abbott (Prime Minister)	A motion to bring about a leadership spill in the Liberal Party is defeated 61–39, with Tony Abbott remaining as Prime Minister.
14 September 2015	Liberal	Government	Tony Abbott (Prime Minister) Malcolm Turnbull (Communications Minister and former Opposition Leader)	Turnbull defeated Prime Minister Tony Abbott, 54 votes to 44. A second ballot the same evening saw Julie Bishop re-elected as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, 70 votes to 30 over Kevin Andrews.

States

Queensland

Spill date	Party	Status	Contenders	Outcome
26 November 1987	National	Government	Joh Bjelke-Petersen (Premier) Mike Ahern (Health Minister)	In the aftermath of the Fitzgerald Inquiry, Bjelke-Petersen had lost his authority in the party room. He refused numerous requests for a party meeting, but the party's management committee called one for 26 November. At this meeting, a spill motion carried by a margin of 38-9. Bjelke-Petersen boycotted the meeting, and thus did not nominate for the ensuing leadership vote, which saw Ahern elected as the new leader and Bill Gunn elected deputy.
6 May 2016	Liberal National	Opposition	Lawrence Springborg (Opposition Leader) Tim Nicholls (Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Planning, Small Business, Employment and Trade) Tim Mander (Shadow Minister for Education and Training)	Following months of speculation about his leadership, Springborg called a leadership spill. In the first round, he received 17 votes to 14 for Tim Nicholls and 10 for Tim Mander. In the second round, Nicholls defeated Springborg 22 to 19. John Paul Langbroek also stood down as Deputy Leader, with Deb Frecklington elected unopposed to replace him.

South Australia

• November 1996: Premier Dean Brown was beaten by John Olsen for the leadership of the South Australian Liberals.
• April 2007: Martin Hamilton-Smith defeated opposition leader Iain Evans for the SA Liberal leadership.
• July 2009: Two consecutive spills in the Liberal Party led to the ousting of Hamilton-Smith, replaced by Isobel Redmond.

New South Wales

• 5 September 2009: Morris Iemma (Labor) resigned after a challenge in the Labor party room from Water and Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees.
• December 2009: Nathan Rees (Labor) was beaten by Kristina Keneally, to become New South Wales's first female Premier.

Victoria

• March 2013: Ted Baillieu (Liberal) resigned and was replaced by Dennis Napthine after the controversial backbencher Geoff Shaw resigned from the Liberal Party, depriving it of a majority in the Victorian Parliament. Baillieu was told by members of his Government that he had lost the support of his party room. Politicians differed in their views on whether the event was a leadership spill or a voluntary resignation.

Northern Territory

Spill date	Party	Status	Contenders	Outcome
13 March 2013	Country Liberal	Government	Terry Mills (Chief Minister) Adam Giles (Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government)	The spill was called while Mills was on a trade mission to Japan, less than a year after he had led the party from opposition to victory in the 2012 election, winning 16 of 25 seats. Giles won the ballot 11–5, becoming the first indigenous head of government of an Australian state or territory. He made Dave Tollner the new Deputy Chief Minister.
2 February 2015	Country Liberal	Government	Adam Giles (Chief Minister) Willem Westra van Holthe (former Deputy Chief Minister)	The CLP party room voted to oust Adam Giles 9 votes to 5 and replace him with Westra van Holthe, who Giles had replaced as Deputy Chef Minister following the previous leadership spill. However, due to doubts that Westra van Holthe lacked enough support in the parliament for a minority Country Liberal Party government without the numbers of Giles and his supporters, Giles refused to resign. The crisis was settled a day later, when Giles agreed to promote Westra van Holthe to the position of Deputy Chief Minister.
23 April 2015	Labor	Opposition	Delia Lawrie(Opposition Leader) Michael Gunner(Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Employment and Youth)	On 15 April 2015, Lawrie lost the support of her party room facing criticism of her conduct during an inquiry into a property deal while she was a minister. On 19 April 2015, Gunner announced he would stand for the leadership Lawrie who was refusing to resign. Four days later, Lawrie resigned and Gunner was elected unopposed as leader, avoiding the need for a five week ballot process involving rank and file members as well as parliamentarians under the ALP's updated leadership rules.

See also

• Leadership review – similar process in Canada

External links

• Australia: Coup capital of the democratic world (BBC News, 14th September 2015)

• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-08/kevin-rudd-reveals-plan-for-labor-party-leadership-voting-reform/4806820
• http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/kevin-rudd-wins-over-party-leadership-rules-20130722-2qdly.html
• http://australianpolitics.com/news/2003/12/03-12-02c.shtml