As it happened: Kevin Rudd defeats Julia Gillard in Labor leadership spill
(AAP, Field Public Relations)
Kevin Rudd has prevailed in a dramatic Labor leadership ballot, defeating Julia Gillard 57-45 and paving the way for him to return to the prime ministership.
The vote was the third time the Labor leadership has come to a head this Parliament, after Ms Gillard overthrew Mr Rudd in 2010.
Her defeat means Ms Gillard will quit politics at the next election, following her vow to retire if she should lose.
Wayne Swan has quit as deputy leader and has been replaced by Anthony Albanese, while Penny Wong will replace Stephen Conroy as Labor's Senate leader.
Frontbenchers Greg Combet, Peter Garrett, Joe Ludwig and Craig Emerson have joined Mr Swan and Senator Conroy in quitting Cabinet following the vote.
Read the story here, and look back at how our rolling updates, images, video and analysis unfolded.
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"The Caucus doesn't elect the PM. The Caucus elects the leader of Labor Party.
"They changed leader tonight. The PM - current PM, she is still the PM - Julia Gillard will hand in her commission tomorrow morning and will probably advise, I presume, advise that her replacement become the new PM and the Governor-General will probably grant that request.
"Parliament is sitting tomorrow, at that point the question is does he have the confidence of the house? Tomorrow is the last sitting day before the election and tomorrow will probably determine whether the Government goes through to September 14 or has an election earlier.
"If the Government goes into the parliament tomorrow and loses a vote of no confidence they would recommend an early election. Tony Abbott's advice in that situation would be to call an early election.
"Constitutional conventions are, if a PM who lost confidence asked for an election you wouldn't give the election to somebody else, you give it to the first PM that asks.
"Presumably that will happen if they survive the vote tomorrow and the PM can probably - Kevin Rudd once sworn in as PM, could carry through to September 14 if he wants unless he chooses to go earlier."
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"Let's put that in context. Just over three years ago, Kevin Rudd was so unpopular that they couldn't even stand in the ballot.
"He wasn't able to even front the Caucus room. Then we have had another fight.
"He was decisively beaten and another fight where he didn't have the numbers, only a few months ago.
"Now the numbers have swung into what is a decisive victory for Kevin Rudd, the guy who has been knifed and bombed, but who hasn't died."
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![](https://news-legacy-vendors.abc-prod.net.au/scribble/132264/c2fb7101-863b-400e-9a75-2fad8a5ad665.jpg)
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"I think that is quite a good result for Kevin Rudd. He wouldn't have wanted a really tight result. Keep in mind that Tony Abbott won his leadership ballot by one vote and that was enough.
"When you're the challenger the margin doesn't matter that much. The margin of 57-45 is quite decisive and that is an indication of just how many numbers switched at the last minute."