Australia's embattled Prime Minister Julia Gillard Saturday said she would announce a cabinet shake-up within days after losing four ministers who backed a failed Labour Party coup against her. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, Tertiary Education Minister Chris Bowen and Human Services Minister Kim Carr quit on Friday after backing a return of former leader Kevin Rudd to save the party from defeat in September polls.
Respected Labour elder and Arts Minister Simon Crean was sacked Thursday after calling for the leadership challenge which Rudd ultimately failed to contest, while parliamentary secretary Richard Marles has also quit his post. Gillard said the leadership question was "behind us" and there would be no difficulty in filling the three cabinet positions left by Ferguson, Bowen and Crean.
"I will deal with the ministerial reshuffle in coming days," she told reporters. "I am very lucky to be supported by so many great ministers." Labour figures have described recent days as an awful experience for the government, which is badly lagging behind the conservative opposition led by Tony Abbott in opinion polls just six months out from an election. "It has been awful. No other way of describing it," Environment Minister Tony Burke said late Friday.