Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was in damage control on Tuesday, insisting she did not ask staff to prepare a victory speech two weeks before she ousted then leader Kevin Rudd in a party room coup.
As a new opinion poll showed Gillard's dismal popularity dipping further, the prime minister was forced onto the back foot over claims her office had worked on an acceptance speech a fortnight before Rudd's brutal removal.
"I did not direct staff in my office to prepare a speech for me as prime minister. I wouldn't have seen the need for it," Gillard told ABC radio.
"I decided to challenge Kevin Rudd and to ask him for a ballot in the Labor Party on the day I asked him for that ballot."
Gillard came to power in June 2010 after suddenly ousting Rudd, who had lost the support of the party's powerful factional chiefs and was increasingly unpopular within the caucus.
But the overnight leadership change shocked the electorate and Gillard failed to win a clear majority when she called an election several weeks later, meaning she now leads a fragile coalition government supported by independents.
Both Gillard and Rudd, now foreign minister, have refused to discuss what happened in the lead-up to the leadership change, prompting endless speculation about the possible trigger point.
Gillard Tuesday described the days before her challenge as tense, and said she could not say exactly when she learned that her staff were working on an acceptance speech.
But she said she had made no firm decision to challenge Rudd, who had brought Labor back to power in November 2007 after 11 years in opposition, until the day she decided to do so.
With the government polling poorly, speculation is mounting that Rudd, who is far more popular with voters than Gillard, might make a leadership comeback to revive the party's chances.
The latest Newspoll published in The Australian on Tuesday show Labor would lose an election. Gillard's rating as preferred PM has dropped from 40 to 37 percent while opposition leader Tony Abbott's rating rose to 40 percent.
In an interview with ABC TV aired on Monday night, Gillard became testy when repeatedly asked if she knew about the acceptance speech, eventually telling the interviewer: "Well, I've given you the answer I'm going to give you."
The Four Corners programme also revealed that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was aware of leadership rumbles about two weeks before Rudd's ousting, summoning Canberra's ambassador for a meeting while many Labor MPs were still in the dark.
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