Reply #1: It had to be done, and Julia remained loyal to Kevin to the end.

[Matilda]

In fact, the only person who didn't believe in her loyalty was Kevin Rudd himself. Apparently, it was yesterday's polling by Alister Jordan that prompted her to finally agree to contest the leadership.

I feel sad for Rudd and the loss of all that early promise, but his political judgment is terrible - in the end, he turned out to be more a bureaucrat than a politician. Labor's support is down to its core believers, and the thought of Abbott as PM is too scary - that's what caused Paul Howes to withdraw the support of the MWU yesterday. Without the two biggest unions, Labor's funding would be cut drastically.

It's still a bit hard to comprehend the slide we've seen over just three months, but at last I feel we can see some daylight at the end of the tunnel. Gillard is a terrific parliamentary performer – it just remains to be seen whether she's prepared to make U-turns on an ETS and the mining tax (which I think is necessary, but badly timed).

So we'll say goodbye to Rudd and his little South Park face from the frontbench. I feel sorry that it had to happen like this.