CANBERRA, Australia — Julia Gillard was sworn in Thursday as Australia’s first female prime minister less than 24 hours after the Welsh-born education minister mounted her challenge to oust Kevin Rudd as Labor Party leader.
Rudd, 52, stepped down after losing the support of colleagues over his plans to boost taxes on the mining industry. The ouster ended his tenure just 2 1 /2 years after he swept to power in a landslide election victory.
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group rose in Sydney trading as Gillard agreed to start negotiations on a proposed tax on profits that would raise $10.5 billion in its first two years.
The plan had sparked a storm of protests from the world’s biggest producers, which threatened to scrap projects and curtail investment.
Gillard, 48, a former labor lawyer, also said Thursday that she’ll call an election this year, setting up a battle with the Liberal Party’s Tony Abbott.
“Ultimately, Kevin Rudd and I disagreed about the direction of the government,” Gillard told reporters in Canberra. “I came to the view that a good government was losing its way.”
After her televised swearing-in, Gillard joined Gov.-General Quentin Bryce on the steps of Government House in Canberra.
The two were accompanied by Treasurer Wayne Swan, who will retain the post he held in Rudd’s government while also serving as Gillard’s deputy.
“This is the most dramatic leadership change in Australian political history,” Nick Economou, a lecturer in politics at Monash University in Melbourne, said in a phone interview.
Rudd, who served the shortest term as leader since William McMahon’s tenure of 20 months and 25 days beginning in 1971, said in a news conference Thursday in Canberra that he was proud of steering the nation through the global economic crisis without falling into recession.
“I’ve given it my absolute all,” Rudd told reporters in Canberra, as he fought back tears. “These reforms will endure into the future and make Australia, I believe, a fairer and better place than it would otherwise have been.”
Flanked by his wife, Therese Rein, and children Jess, Nick and Marcus, Rudd said he’ll run at the next election in his district of Griffith in the state of Queensland.
Gillard will talk to Rudd about a possible role for him in government before she decides on any changes to government ministries, she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Any changes will be small and she intends to maintain stability in government, Gillard said Thursday evening on Sydney-based Channel Nine television.
Rudd’s support began to slide in April after he shelved his carbon-trading system, the centerpiece of his plan to tackle climate change, which he called the greatest “moral challenge” of our time. He then proposed the 40 percent tax on the “super profits” of resource projects in Australia, the world’s biggest shipper of coal and iron ore, and refused to back down even after members of his own party objected.
Gillard on Thursday offered to “throw open” her doors to the mining industry, and pledged to scrap the government’s advertising campaign that Rudd undertook to counter what he said was industry “misinformation” about the levy.
In return, she asked the mining industry to end its campaign, an appeal that was answered by BHP. Rio Tinto on Thursday said it’s “cautiously encouraged” by Gillard’s comments on the tax.
Dissatisfaction with Rudd hit a record 55 percent, according to a telephone survey of 1,147 people between June 18 and June 20 published in The Australian newspaper this week. The margin of error was 3 percentage points.
Gillard will now face Abbott, who has promised not to adopt the resource profits tax and has offered a more generous plan for new parents to take leave from the work force.
“A prime minister elected by the people has been executed by the union and the factional warlords,” Abbott told reporters in Canberra on Thursday. “Different salesman, same dud product.”
Abbott, a former health minister, seminary student and Rhodes scholar, has galvanized conservative voters with his attacks on the government’s climate change and asylum seeker policies.
“I don’t think it’s diminished the opposition’s prospects one iota,” John Freebairn, professor of economics at the University of Melbourne, said in a phone interview.
Information for this article was contributed by Garfield Reynolds and Angus Whitley of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 06/25/2010