Since Gillard called the election, every day has been a torturous discussion on Ruddmentum.
Ruddmentum supporters spend a lot of time behind closed doors doing this to journalists and Labor officials
The media get more and more like this
Nobody is happy
Finally, the Labor party realise what the rest of us already knew
So Crean calls for leadership ballot, turning general speculation into pressure to call the whole thing to a head
In the LN newsroom we were all
Gillard agrees to a leadership ballot at 4.30pm
And we were all like, thank ye gods, finally
Twitter melts down with wonk talk
At 4.20, Kevin Rudd announces he will not challenge for the Labor leadership
Australia is less than impressed. General sentiment on Rudd’s refusal to challenge?
Side-eye is thrown at Crean. For serious? He didn’t know this was how it would go? Did he count the damn numbers?
The farce of the ballot continues, with Gillard entering the meeting feeling pretty confident
At 4.40pm, the joke is confirmed. Nobody challenged for the leadership.
Simon Crean, having started all of this by calling for a leadership ballot, stands down from the front bench
The Gillard camp do a lot of back patting
There is a lot of this in the LN newsroom
Meanwhile, at Liberal Party headquarters
