Kevin Rudd will shortly face a Caucus vote on his leadership, having had his career Bill Shortened. It is now expected that Julia Gillard will become Australia's first ranga Prime Minister. Shocked by the spill, Kevin Rudd has declared that Gillard has launched "the greatest immoral challenge of this generation."

Despite the apparent inevitability of defeat tomorrow, in the press conference when he announced the challenge Mr Rudd decided to take a strong stand on principle, saying he would contest the ballot. Rudd is expected to back down from that principle tomorrow.

Rudd told that reporters that him remaining Prime Minister is in the national interest. The nation, by contrast, has expressed substantially more interest in Julia Gillard.

In what may prove to be his last press conference as Labor leader, Mr Rudd said he was proud of his achievements as Prime Minister, and would be stressing them to his colleagues as soon as he receives a detailed report telling him what they were.

The PM ended the press conference early so he could do the numbers, but for a job at the United Nations.

Labor insiders have said that Gillard has the numbers for the spill. "We checked with the expert on spills, BP," said one Gillard supporter.

If she becomes PM, Julia Gillard is expected to do a clearout of Rudd's office, sacking dozens of his personal staff a few weeks before they would have resigned anyway. Many Rudd advisers are already planning new lives. "Now I can go back and finish Year 12," said his soon-to-be-ex-Chief-of-Staff Alistair Jordan.

Most pundits expect the PM will be defeated by his deputy tomorrow. If she succeeds him, Gillard is expected to emulate Kevin Rudd in at least one respect, by starting her Prime Ministership with a public apology.

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