Australia's Labor Party ousted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Thursday in a historic move that resulted in the country getting its first female prime minister.
Julia Gillard, 48, was elected leader of the party in an uncontested vote just hours after she surprised party members by challenging Rudd, in an apparent bid to shore up support for the floundering party.
Labor has slipped in popularity in recent months and faced defeat in an October election.
"I asked my colleagues to make a leadership change because I believed that a good government was losing its way," Gillard told a news conference.
The ouster of Rudd, one of the country's more popular leaders, followed a series of gaffes, including a flip flop on a carbon gas emissions bill that would have seen the worst polluters pay, and a controversial tax on mining company profits.
Gillard said her government is willing to negotiate the proposed mining tax, which polls showed was harming the government's re-election chances.
A poll earlier this month showed the Labor Party trailing its opposition for the first time since Rudd won a landslide election victory in 2007, ousting longtime prime minister John Howard.
Gillard has not committed to the government's emission trading plan and instead said she would seek a consensus on the scheme, in which polluters would buy and trade permits for every tonne of carbon gas they produce.
The Australian Senate has twice rejected the legislation.