JULIA Gillard has delivered a blistering assessment on Labor's election loss, saying the party had sent Australians a "very cynical and shallow message about its sense of purpose''.
Writing on The Guardian Australia website today, the dumped former prime minister revealed she watched the election night coverage alone, as she "wanted it that way". "I wanted to just let myself be swept up in it.''
She described losing power as being "felt physically, emotionally, in waves of sensation, in moments of acute distress''.
On the change of leader to Kevin Rudd, she wrote: "Labor unambiguously sent a very clear message that it cared about nothing other than the prospects of survival of its members of parliament at the polls.
"...Labor in opposition faces this as its first task: re-embracing purpose."
In a long, wide-ranging piece, Ms Gillard attacked the decision to dump her and criticised Labor's tactics for the election as having "not one truly original idea" but conceded she had "erred by not contesting the label 'tax''' referring to carbon pricing - a decision that "hurt me terribly".
And she has argued against the new ALP rules for selecting leaders, which open the process to a vote of caucus and of the rank-and-file membership.
"Indeed, the new rules represent exactly the wrong approach to address the so-called 'revolving door' of the Labor leadership,'' she wrote.
"These rules literally mean that a person could hang on as Labor leader and as prime minister even if every member of cabinet, the body that should be the most powerful and collegiate in the country, has decided that person was no longer capable of functioning as prime minister.
"...I argue against them because they are a clumsy attempt to hold power; they are not rules about leadership for purpose."
Ms Gillard praised and criticised Mr Rudd on policy and said Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese were worthy candidates for leader.
