noteworthy is how this played out and the differences with the pnm's succession crisis and to a lesser extent unc's.
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How they planned Rudd's execution by John Ferguson, Steve Lewis
Julia Gillard is Australia's new prime minister after Kevin Rudd stepped down as Labor party leader. Picture: AFP Source: The Australian IT WAS just after 8pm in Canberra's Hoang Hau restaurant when the gravity of Kevin Rudd's plight started to become clear.
Labor powerbroker Bill Shorten was eating with the godfather of Labor's Right faction from South Australia, Senator Don Farrell, and Early Childhood Education Minister Kate Ellis on Wednesday night.
Onlookers at Hoang Hau, which means Imperial Queen, were intrigued.
As the other diners pretended to focus on their food - the speciality is salted, crispy pigeon - history was being played out by mobile phone.
The challenge was on, the three MPs making and receiving calls, no doubt in the knowledge that Julia Gillard was poised to make her run.
About 3km down the road at Parliament House, the knives were being sharpened, the end of session tiredness replaced by adrenaline.
Victorian senator David Feeney was seen walking the corridors of parliament, ducking through the ground floor gardens and into the offices of factional allies.
All the while, some of the most significant players in the Rudd Government - supporters of Kevin Rudd - were having to rely on media reporting of a looming challenge.
It was a lightning challenge executed with brutal efficiency, so much so that three ministers were hosting end of Parliament drinks.
At roughly the same time, Julia Gillard was telling Kevin Rudd it was game over as key ministers shuffled through the prime ministerial offices.
Ms Gillard entered the PM's office at 7.15pm and joining her and Mr Rudd was party heavyweight Senator John Faulkner.
Ms Gillard would watch the prime ministerial press conference about three hours later from within the suite of offices used by the PM's staff.
News of the leadership ructions emerged publicly about 7pm but the coup was under way from early that morning.
It is believed Ms Gillard urged Mr Rudd to go quietly.
Just before the story broke at 7pm, a key Rudd ally, Left-wing minister Anthony Albanese, was apparently ignorant of what was unfolding. Or he was doing an excellent job hiding it.
As manager of Government business in the House of Representatives, it is Mr Albanese's business to know what is going on.
Yet before the story hit the media, he could be seen wandering the parliamentary press gallery discussing matters unrelated to politics.
Later, he would be seen - alert and alarmed - darting in and out of the Prime Minister's Office, or PMO as it is known inside the Canberra beltway.
He wasn't alone.
An insider said that when the ABC reported meetings about Mr Rudd's leadership at 7pm, it was game on.
"It was like a bomb going off," he said.
"A lot of the ministers had no idea about it. Staffers were s----ing themselves.
"Lights that were off in offices all over the place were turned on.
"It was chaos at the entrances to Parliament."
Those ministers and MPs who rushed back to Parliament were in a state of panic.
It was only those who knew the score who didn't need to sprint.
THE battleground for the coup, however, came just after dawn on Wednesday when some of Labor's most ferocious factional deal makers jogged onto a parliamentary sporting field for a friendly game of World Cup soccer.
Mark Arbib, the NSW Right-wing warrior, laced up his boots, as did Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy, dubbed a "factional Dalek" by party elder and ex-senator Robert Ray.
Alan Griffin, the Minister for Veterans Affairs and key Victorian Left number cruncher who had helped deliver the numbers for Kevin Rudd when he ousted Kim Beazley in late 2006, also took his place in the line-up, as did NSW MP Belinda Neal.
It was the start of an extraordinary day in Canberra, a day that ended with the death of a prime ministerial career.
About 9.30am, Senator Arbib, the junior Employment Minister and former NSW state secretary, joined up with Senator Feeney.
Senator Feeney was, like Senator Arbib, a parliamentary first-termer, winning his Senate position on the back of the 2007 Rudd-slide.
The senators went to see Julia Gillard in her office, just around the corner from the Prime Minister's suite.
They had a bombshell to deliver. Mr Rudd no longer had their support or their confidence - they wanted to put her in The Lodge.
Ms Gillard, who had pledged total loyalty to Mr Rudd, gave them no commitment but immediately started consulting her closest supporters and friends.
But she made it known she was deeply annoyed by a news story reporting that Mr Rudd's chief of staff Alister Jordan had been sounding out caucus colleagues.
Senior Labor sources said the anger was intensified by suggestions that some ministers would be necked by Mr Rudd before the election.
A little later, Senator Farrell was brought into the loop.
Then, about noon, Mr Shorten was told of the discussions.
Two weeks earlier, Mr Shorten had been to see Ms Gillard, raising concerns about Mr Rudd's increasingly erratic performance and the growing concerns that Labor was headed for an electoral trouncing.
While Ms Gillard was sounding out her colleagues, a four-person delegation - Shorten, Feeney, Farrell and Steve Hutchins, from NSW - paid a visit to Treasurer Wayne Swan.
The Treasurer went to the same high school as Kevin Rudd and worked closely with him for many years. Together they crafted the Government's huge stimulus package, which warded off the global financial crisis.
MR SWAN was a late convert to Ms Gillard, but he is deeply pragmatic. Once Ms Gillard vowed to run, he knew it was game over for Mr Rudd.
Victorian MPs were crucial in backing Ms Gillard.
By the end of the night, sources said only Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner was wavering on the transition.
Mr Tanner, who had already privately told Mr Rudd he will quit his seat of Melbourne at the next election, is a rival of Ms Gillard.
Former leader Simon Crean was reportedly reluctant to shift his support but eventually switched.
The NSW Right was already on board the Gillard train on Wednesday night. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith saw the writing on the wall at the same time.
A senior Labor source said the idea that it was a coup forced by factional warlords was "stupid".
"The fact is there were 80-odd MPs backing Julia," the source said.
"
What needed to happen was Julia had to put up her hand. Kevin was driving us into a cliff. This was a whole-of-caucus decision."
Mr Rudd clearly didn't believe so.
He pointedly attacked the factions in his press conference late on Wednesday - further evidence of his lack of political skills.
EVEN though he was hoping to retain party support, he was attacking the very people who would count the votes.
Union figures regularly refer to the ill-fated meeting Mr Rudd had with factional bosses last year over MPs' printing allowances.
"I don't care what you f----ers think!" he reportedly screamed at Senator Feeney.
Singling out the former Victorian party secretary, Mr Rudd said: "You can get f----d."
Also subject to the tirade was Senator Farrell, who became instrumental in Mr Rudd's political demise.
Stories of Mr Rudd's appalling behaviour towards colleagues are legend.
But insiders have played down the importance of Mr Rudd's rant at Senator Feeney and Senator Farrell.
"We're allowed to swear," an MP said.
"Rudd's problem was that he was wrecking the Government.
"And he wouldn't listen."
It would take a hard heart not to feel some sympathy for Mr Rudd as he fought back tears and his voice broke in the prime ministerial courtyard yesterday.
That courtyard will one day be seen as sacred territory in Australia.
Rarely used, it has been the venue for some of the most dramatic developments in modern politics.
But his farewell was very Kevin Rudd - heavy in acknowledging his own achievements but light on insight, much like Mark Latham.
The prime minister with the foul mouth and violent temper praised God before he walked off into the bowels of Parliament.
It is highly likely Kevin Rudd will never understand where it all went wrong.
- with Ben Packham