1. Turnbull v Abbott
When Malcolm Turnbull ousted Tony Abbott from the Liberal party leadership in 2015, it was part two of a feud between the two men. In 2009 Abbott had ousted Turnbull as party leader by just one vote in a contest mostly about whether the Liberals should back Labor’s carbon pollution reduction scheme. Turnbull was in favour, Abbott against. Abbott’s subsequent “axe the tax” campaign helped to topple Julia Gillard.
2. Rudd v Gillard
When Julia Gillard asked Kevin Rudd to resign as prime minister or face a leadership challenge in 2010, it’s fair to say few Australians saw it coming. A first-term PM ousted by his own party. The public airing of the Labor party’s dirty laundry, a hung parliament, a minority government with the Greens and the carbon tax debacle all followed. And then Rudd got his own back, ousting Gillard in 2013 and losing to Abbott later that year. Not Labor’s finest hour.
3. Howard v Costello
In John Howard’s concession speech at the 2007 election, when he lost government and his seat of Bennelong in Sydney, he anointed Peter Costello as the next leader of the Liberal party. But his long-serving treasurer made the shock announcement that he was leaving politics to pursue a business career. He had become tired of waiting for his boss to hand over the reins – something he said Howard had promised at a meeting at Kirribilli House years before. Publicly the two men had remained civil but privately there were disagreements about leadership and the economy. After the Coalition’s electoral defeat, a merry-go-round of Liberal leaders followed: Brendan Nelson (2007), Malcolm Turnbull (2008), then Tony Abbott (2009).
4. Hawke v Keating
Another Kirribilli House agreement, a planned transition from treasurer to PM and one of the biggest political fights in Australian history. When Bob Hawke refused to stand aside for Paul Keating after Labor’s 1990 election victory – as Keating says was agreed between the two – Keating lost his first leadership challenge, briefly returning to the backbench, but won the second in December 1991. Hawke took a long time to forgive his former protege. But he bowed out of politics gracefully and Keating remained PM until he lost to Howard in 1996.
5. Howard v Peacock
John Howard and Andrew Peacock had been rivals long before their leadership stoush erupted in 1985. In Malcolm Fraser’s Coalition government, the two held plum jobs: Howard as treasurer, Peacock as foreign affairs minister. They were natural rivals but from opposing ideological camps on the right and left of the Liberal party. As leader in 1985, facing an uphill battle against the prime minister, Bob Hawke, Peacock called a party meeting to try to remove Howard as deputy after having sought (and not received) assurances that his rival would not challenge for the top job. When the party room re-elected Howard as deputy, snubbing Peacock, he resigned, clearing the way for Howard to move up. But after Hawke won the 1987 election, Peacock was elected Howard’s deputy in a show of party unity. Two years later a party-room coup toppled Howard and reinstalled Peacock but, after losing the 1990 election to Hawke, Peacock stepped down and John Hewson took over.
