In Australian politics, a leadership spill (or simply a 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 (leader and deputy leader in both houses). 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 in office on 5 July 1945.See Trove for list of articles beginning on or about 10 July, for example: The News, 10 July 1945, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130230337?searchTerm=leadership%20%22spill%22
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 early 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" during that period.
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 (but not always) 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 (or 60 per cent of caucus for an opposition leader) is a caucus-approved rule and was not included in the 2018 National Platform.
Federal Liberal Party changes Following the oustings of two Liberal prime minister in 3 years, Scott Morrison, who won the leadership spill of 24 August 2018 introduced a new threshold to trigger a Liberal Party leadership change in government, requiring two-thirds of the partyroom vote to trigger a spill motion. The change was introduced at an hour long party room meeting on the evening of 3 December 2018. Morrison said the changes, which were drafted with feedback from former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, would only apply to leaders who lead the party to victory at a federal election.
Impact Historically, a governing party's replacement of its leader fails to improve its electoral fortunes. Across state and federal politics between 1970 and 2014, over 90% of governing parties that replaced their leader lost their majority at the subsequent election. The chances of success are higher when the party is in opposition, leading to success at the subsequent election about 50% of the time.
Notable spill motions The following spill motions occurred during a parliamentary term, rather than in the aftermath of an election loss. Colours denote the party holding the leadership spill motion. Blue represents the Liberal Party, red the Labor Party, and green the National Party.
Federal Spill date PartyStatusIncumbentContendersOutcome2 March 1931 LaborGovernmentJames ScullinJames Scullin (Prime Minister) Jack Beasley (Assistant Minister for Industry)During the 1931 Labor Party split, Prime Minister James Scullin was challenged by Jack Beasley of the Lang Labor faction, winning by 40 votes to five with seven abstentions.27 April 1966 LaborOppositionArthur CalwellArthur Calwell (Opposition Leader) Gough Whitlam (Deputy Leader)Calwell defeated Whitlam by 49 votes to 25 after promising to resign if Labor did not win the November 1966 federal election.30 April 1968 LaborOppositionGough WhitlamGough Whitlam (Opposition Leader) Jim CairnsWhitlam called a spill after conflict with the National Executive. He defeated Cairns by 38 votes to 32.10 March 1971 LiberalGovernmentJohn GortonWilliam McMahon (Foreign Minister) Billy Snedden (Minister for Labour and National Service)Prime Minister John Gorton had faced a leadership challenge in November 1969 and prevailed. At the vote, he retained the leadership of the Liberal Party after a leadership spill resulted in a 33–33 tie. However, Gorton then resigned, saying that a tie was not a vote of confidence. He did not contest the ensuing ballot, and McMahon defeated Snedden to become his successor.McMahon Becomes P.M., The Canberra Times, 11 March 2017.31 May 1977 LaborOppositionGough WhitlamGough Whitlam (Opposition Leader) Bill Hayden (Shadow Treasurer)Whitlam defeated Hayden by 32 votes to 30.8 April 1982 LiberalGovernmentMalcolm FraserMalcolm Fraser (Prime Minister) Andrew Peacock (Backbencher, previously Foreign Minister)Fraser beat Peacock's challenge for the leadership of the Liberal Party, 54–27 votes.16 July 1982 LaborOppositionBill HaydenBill Hayden (Opposition Leader) Bob Hawke (Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Employment and Youth)Hayden beat Hawke to retain the leadership of the Labor Party, 42–37 but resigned in February 1983 in Hawke's favor, just one month before the ALP returned to government in the 1983 federal election. 9 May 1989 LiberalOppositionJohn HowardJohn Howard (Opposition Leader) Andrew Peacock (Deputy Leader)Peacock won the Liberal leadership with 44 votes to Howard's 27, becoming leader for the second time.9 May 1989 NationalOpposition (coalition with Liberal Party)Ian SinclairIan Sinclair (Party Leader) Charles Blunt (Shadow Minister)The National Party held a spill on the same day as their Liberal Party colleagues, resulting in Charles Blunt replacing Ian Sinclair as leader.3 June 1991 LaborGovernmentBob HawkeBob Hawke (Prime Minister) Paul Keating (Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer) Following Hawke's failure to honour the Kirribilli Agreement of 1988 in which he promised to hand over the Labor leadership to Keating, Keating challenged Hawke. He lost by 44 votes to Hawke's 66. He resigned to the backbench.20 December 1991 LaborGovernmentBob HawkeBob Hawke (Prime Minister) Paul Keating (Backbencher) With Hawke's public support having fallen to record lows, Keating launched a second leadership challenge. That effort was successful, with Keating winning the Labor leadership by 5 votes, 56–51. The ballot papers for both 1991 spills were preserved by the returning officer and are kept by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House.23 May 1994 LiberalOppositionJohn HewsonJohn Hewson (Opposition Leader) Alexander Downer (Shadow Treasurer) Downer won 43 votes against Hewson's 36 votes for the Liberal party leadership, with Peter Costello elected unopposed to replace Michael Wooldridge as deputy.16 June 2003 LaborOppositionSimon CreanSimon Crean (Opposition Leader) Kim Beazley (Backbencher and former Opposition Leader) Crean defeated Beazley's challenge 58–34.2 December 2003 LaborOppositionSimon CreanKim Beazley (Backbencher and former Opposition Leader) Mark Latham (Shadow Treasurer)Following a poor poll performance, Crean was urged to step down by senior colleagues. He agreed to do so on 28 November 2003. The ballot was held on Tuesday 2 December in which Latham defeated Beazley by a margin of two votes (47-45).4 December 2006 LaborOppositionKim BeazleyKim Beazley (Opposition Leader) Kevin Rudd (Shadow Foreign Minister) Labor frontbencher Kevin Rudd launched a challenge against Beazley, prompting Beazley to call a spill for all leadership positions within the party. Rudd won the Labor leadership 49–39.16 September 2008 LiberalOppositionBrendan NelsonBrendan Nelson (Opposition Leader) Malcolm Turnbull (Shadow Treasurer)Turnbull succeeded in his challenge to Nelson, 45–41.1 December 2009 LiberalOppositionMalcolm TurnbullMalcolm Turnbull (Opposition Leader) Joe Hockey (Shadow Treasurer) Tony Abbott (Backbencher who had resigned shortly beforehand as Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs)On 26 November 2009, following division within the Liberal-National coalition about carbon emissions trading, Kevin Andrews moved a spill motion against Turnbull's leadership, which was defeated by a vote of 48 to 35.
Abbott announced on 27 November—one day after Turnbull survived Kevin Andrews' spill motion—that he would challenge Turnbull for the leadership. Abbott committed to withdrawing his candidacy if Joe Hockey was to challenge. He changed his position after Hockey refused to oppose an emissions trading scheme outright and suggested a conscience vote on the Rudd government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
Hockey was eliminated in the first round of voting. Abbott defeated Turnbull with a narrow margin of 42–41 votes.24 June 2010 LaborGovernmentKevin RuddJulia Gillard (Deputy Prime Minister)First term Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was replaced by his deputy Julia Gillard, months prior to the 2010 federal election.27 February 2012 LaborGovernmentJulia GillardJulia Gillard (Prime Minister) Kevin Rudd (foreign minister and former prime minister)Kevin Rudd resigned as Foreign Minister seeking to overturn the 2010 spill result but Julia Gillard retained the Labor leadership with 71 votes to Rudd's 31. Rudd moved to the backbench.21 March 2013 LaborGovernmentJulia GillardJulia Gillard (Prime Minister)Julia Gillard called a snap ballot following Simon Crean publicly calling for a Labor leadership ballot. Former prime minister Kevin Rudd vowed not to stand in the challenge, and as a result Julia Gillard was re-elected unopposed.26 June 2013 LaborGovernmentJulia GillardJulia Gillard (Prime Minister)