Australia's leadership battle: Media reaction

Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd

Julia Gillard is set to oust Kevin Rudd in a Labor caucus vote across the Tasman this morning and become Australia's first woman prime minister.

Here's a sample of the debate on the issue in the Australian media.

Dennis Shanahan, Political editor at The Australian, says the leadership tussle will only make Labor's job harder.

"Even if Rudd wins in this morning's leadership ballot, he is now fatally damaged", writes Shanahan.

"No matter who wins, Labor is facing a monumental task to win the election."

He cites Rudd's "complete loss of support from the powerbrokers" within Labor.

The political editor for Sydney's Daily Telegraph, Simon Benson, talks of Rudd's isolationist behaviour:

"There is a deep feeling among voters and the caucus that they have been treated like idiots. The electorate never warmed to him.

And nor did his MPs."

Benson says the relationship is now terminal.

"The affair between Kevin Rudd and his caucus isn't just over. They have now filed for divorce."

Shaun Carney, Associate editor of The Age, Melbourne, says the factor that drove Julia Gillard from supporting Kevin Rudd to challenging him, was the fact that Rudd had one of his senior advisers 'check up' on Gillard's true intentions.

"To Gillard, who had insisted all through this time that she had no interest in replacing Rudd, this was an act of spectacular disloyalty. While she was pledging fidelity to Rudd publicly and privately, and defending him in the face of a phenomenal collapse in the polls, the Prime Minister was sending out his most senior emissary to check if she was fair dinkum."

And Carney breaks down Rudd's fatal flaws:

"Many have become convinced that he is too unimaginative and slow-footed to continue in the job, that he has misunderstood how to assume the authority of the prime ministerial office, and that he is simply incapable of taking and absorbing personally challenging advice from senior colleagues."

The Sydney Morning Herald observes that the male-dominated image of Australia is fast becoming redundant.

The days of Crocodile Dundee are gone.

And, the paper says, the upper echelons of government and public office are getting an increasingly feminised air to them:

"If Julia Gillard becomes the nation's first woman prime minister she will preside over a country with two serving female premiers - Kristina Keneally in NSW and Anna Bligh in Queensland. Quentin Bryce was sworn in as the nation's first female Governor-General in September 2008 and Marie Bashir became NSW's first female Governor in March 2001."

And, the paper adds, Queensland also has a female governor.