4 February 2012 Last updated at 02:10 GMT Kevin Rudd lashed out at ''shock and awe'' tactics used by his opponents
Kevin Rudd is to make a ''definitive statement'' on whether he will stand against Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Monday's Labor Party leadership ballot after arriving back in Australia.
Ms Gillard, who ousted him as PM in June 2010, called the vote on Thursday.It followed weeks of tension over speculation that he would challenge her for the top job.
Mr Rudd resigned as Australia's foreign minister in a snap press conference in Washington DC late on Tuesday night.
''This ultimately is a question of people power,'' he said at the Brisbane airport after arriving from the United States early on Friday.
He called on Australian voters not to believe attacks directed at him and lashed out at his opponents for ''the same shock and awe tactics'' that were employed to oust him.
Ms Gillard, he said, had betrayed him in the leadership coup in 2010. She was his deputy then and became the first female prime minister of the country after toppling him.
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KEVIN RUDD
- Member of the Australian Labor Party, first elected to parliament in 1988
- Became leader of the Labor party in 2006
- Served as 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007-2010
- Ousted by deputy Julia Gillard on 24 June 2010
- Recalled to cabinet as foreign minister 14 Sept 2010
- Resigned as foreign minister on 21 February 2012
"I seem to remember someone putting their hand on their heart for about three months in the lead up to June 2010, saying that she would never ever challenge for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party," he said.
'Popularity poll' Mr Rudd also ramped up questions over Ms Gillard's ability to lead, calling on people to speak to their local MPs and the media and ''tell them what you think''."The core question for members of the Australian parliamentary Labor party, for the Australian people, right now is whether they believe the current prime minister has the trust and confidence of the Australian people," he said.
"If you don't have that, you can't do anything else."
The ruling Labor Party government is struggling to retain voter support and Ms Gillard has been slipping in popularity polls. She leads a minority government which relies on independents for its wafer-thin majority.
While Ms Gillard appears to have the support of the majority of the 103-member Labor caucus, Mr Rudd is more popular among voters and is seen as the party's best chance of winning the next election in 2013.
Speaking in Adelaide after Mr Rudd's comments, Ms Gillard said that Monday's ballot was not a popularity poll like ''an episode of Celebrity Big Brother''.
"The choice that my colleagues will make on Monday is about who should be prime minister of this nation,'' she said.
"It's a choice about who has got the strength, the temperament, the character and the courage to lead this nation."
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