CANBERRA, Australia — Australia got its first female prime minister on Thursday after the ruling party dumped Kevin Rudd and installed his deputy as leader. Julia Gillard will lead the government to elections due within months. She stood unopposed at a vote of the Labor Party's 112 lawmakers at a meeting Thur
sday, hours after a revolt against Ru
dd. "I feel very honoured," she told reporters afterward. Rudd didn't even stand for reappointment in the vote -- a signal that he knew his support had collapsed. Rudd had ridden high in opinion polls as one of the most popular Australian prime ministers of modern times until he made major policy backflips, including a decision in April to shelve plans to make Australia's worst polluters pay for their carbon gas emissions. The leadership change is unlikely to alter Australia's key policy positions, such as its troop commitment to Afghanistan. Since she is leader of the majority party in Parliament, Gillard's swearing in as prime minister is a formality. Rudd, who won a landslide election victory less than three years ago, appeared composed after the meeting, but declined to speak to the media.
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