Australia's Labor government is heading for a crushing defeat in this year's election, a poll showed Tuesday as a senior minister blamed the party's bloodletting for driving voters to the opposition. Prime Minister Julia Gillard's popularity has crashed after an "appalling" week in which a veteran cabinet minister called for ex-prime minister Kevin Rudd to challenge her leadership. Rudd refused and Gillard retained power but four ministers who backed the challenge quit or were sacked, forcing a second cabinet reshuffle in as many months.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Monday accused her Labor party of self-indulgence after a farcical leadership coup against her, saying she was "appalled" by the events in an election year. In announcing a cabinet reshuffle after several key ministers backed former prime minister Kevin Rudd to take her job, the nation's first woman leader admitted that "while purpose has driven us on, unity has eluded us". "And that unity spectacularly eluded us last week," she told reporters. "Like Australians around the nation, I was appalled by the events of last week.

An aborted Labor party leadership coup has badly tainted the standing of the Australian prime minister's office with most voters also seeing Julia Gillard as a "lame duck" leader, a poll showed Sunday, six months ahead of a general election. The first opinion poll since Gillard called a shock leadership ballot Thursday to counter rising tensions within the party also said the majority of those questioned would prefer Kevin Rudd in charge.

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr urged his divided Labor party to close ranks Friday, warning that a poll victory for conservative rivals could harm the country's image in Asia. "We've done ourselves a fair bit of harm in the leadership contest," Carr admitted to a US think-tank at the end of a week-long visit to Washington. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is battling to restore her credibility after a botched leadership coup led to a slew of ministers who had supported her rival Kevin Rudd quitting the cabinet.