Leadership spill
In Australian politics, a leadership spill is a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions. Where a rival to the existing leader calls for a spill it may also be called a leadership challenge. When successful, it is often said that the former leader has been "rolled". In Australian English the colloquial use of the word "spill" seems to have begun in the mid-1940s with the contest to replace Prime Minister John Curtin after his death on 5 July 1945.
When a leadership vacancy arises due to the voluntary resignation or death of the incumbent, the resulting leadership ballot may not be popularly called a leadership spill. For example, after the 1968 disappearance of Harold Holt, the four-candidate Liberal Party leadership ballot was not known as a leadership spill. 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.
There were 72 leadership spills between 1970 and 2015; the phenomenon became increasingly common in the early 21st century. None occurred in the 1960s, 10 in the 1970s, 18 in the 1980s, 13 in the 1990s, and 31 between 2000 and 2015. Spills are three times more likely to occur when a party is in opposition compared to when it holds government. The frequent leadership spills and political instability in the 21st century – which saw five changes of Prime Ministers between 2010 and 2018 – has led to Australia being dubbed the "coup capital of the democratic world".
Process
In the Westminster system of government, the leader of the party which forms 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 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. The changes included 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. Another change was that future leadership ballots would include equally weighted voting rights between the caucus and party rank and file members with each block being counted separately and worth 50% of the total.The rule that a Labor prime minister can only be removed if 75 per cent of MPs agree to force a ballot is a caucus-approved rule and was not included in the 2018 National Platform.