Julia Gillard happy with Labor whip Joel Fitzgibbon's 'tweet of support'

JULIA Gillard says Joel Fitzgibbon supports her, despite the fact he has not denied reports he has been openly campaigning for a return to Kevin Rudd.

Julia Gillard

JULIA Gillard says chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon does not have further questions to answer despite the fact he failed to rule out reports he has been openly campaigning for a return to Kevin Rudd.

Speaking this morning Ms Gillard urged the media to "settle down" and declared she would be leading the Labor party to the next election in 2013.

"Mr Fitzgibbon has made a statement this morning and I think his words speak for themselves," Ms Gillard said.

"I will be happily leading Labor to the next election."

Ms Gillard was referring to a tweet from Mr Fitzgibbon this morning in which he was ambiguous on if he supported Ms Gillard personally. He also did not rule out reports he had been speaking to MPs about a return to Mr Rudd as prime minister.

"I thank my colleagues for the publicity but no one does more to support the PM and the government than me," Mr Fitzgibbon wrote via his Twitter account.

Ms Gillard said she would not be seeking to speak further to Mr Fitzgibbon about the reports today.

"Joel has made a statement on this, his words speak for themselves," she said.

"It is not the vehicle as to how they have been disseminated but what they say.

"It is certainly best that I am here leading the team to the 2013 election. I am looking forward to leading the team into the 2013 election."

Tony Abbott was quick to jump on Mr Fitzgibbon's tweet saying his refusal to deny reports today put the leadership speculation up in "flashing neon lights".

"Obviously the faceless men who run the Labor party are now yet again reconsidering the question of the leadership," the Opposition Leader said.

"As long as the Labor party is focused on itself it is not getting on with the job of governing our country. What we saw this morning from Joel Fitzgibbon was effectively a tweet which put in flashing neon lights the division inside the national government right now.

"He has not actually denied the story."

Mr Abbott would not speculate on if a Rudd-lead government would be better than the current Gillard government. He said the Labor party was "at war with itself".

"I think Kevin Rudd is entitled to feel badly let down by his colleagues who assassinated him politically in the dead of night back in June 2010," Mr Abbott said.

"Obviously that's been boiling away inside of him for all this time. But in the end my focus is on how the Coalition can be a better government."

Earlier senior Labor minister Greg Combet said Mr Fitzgibbon had questions to answer about reports the whip had been campaigning for a Rudd return.

Mr Combet  said he had spent all Friday with Mr Fitzgibbon and the question of a potential leadership change had not been raised.

"He's obviously not trying to recruit me," Mr Combet told the ABC's Insiders program.

"I think there are probably a few questions that might be directed to Joel and the nature of politics but I am a strong supporter of the Prime Minister and I think the government is doing a good job."

Mr Fitzgibbon this morning took to Twitter over the story, and failed to rule out reports he had begun gathering support for a future Rudd leadership tilt.

“I thank my colleagues for the publicity but no one does more to support the PM and the government than me,” he wrote.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said there was "no evidence" to suggest that Julia Gillard was not best placed to lead the Labor party.

Senator Carr also dismissed any speculation that he would be willing to take up the role of prime minister if asked.

"No I wouldn't," Senator Carr told Network Ten.

"Julia Gillard is the leader and she will remain as leader."

Rudd supporters have remained silent so far, but some who voted for Ms Gillard in the February leadership count are openly contemplating a switch to Mr Rudd.

Mr Combet said he considered it "unethical" for MPs to background journalists against their Labor colleagues or the party after it was reported today that Mr Fitzgibbon had been telling nervous MPs that the party should return Kevin Rudd to the leadership.

"I just don't like criticisms of my Labor colleagues publicly or privately," he said.

"I personally don't go around backgrounding journalists against my colleagues or the Labor party. I consider it to be unethical."

But Mr Combet said it was up to Ms Gillard to decide whether to take action against Mr Fitzgibbon.

"That's for the boss to determine," he said.

News Limited Sunday papers today reported that Mr Fitzgibbon last week told his colleagues that the hung parliament was "killing" the government. Mr Fitzgibbon has previously been a staunch Gillard supporter, but has reportedly switched camps and is now pushing for a return to Mr Rudd.

MPs said Mr Fitzgibbon, a former defence minister, told them: "We need to make the switch. This chaos is killing us."

He reportedly told his colleagues a return to Kevin Rudd, just three months after the former PM failed in a leadership tilt, would not necessarily lead to a snap election with the key independents reluctant to go to the polls.

Greens Leader Christine Milne said this morning if a leadership challenge did occur her party would maintain its support for Labor.

Speaking on Sky News's Australian Agenda program Senator Milne said she had a "good working relationship" with Ms Gillard and believed she would remain as Labor leader through to the next election.

But Senator Milne said if the Prime Minister was replaced, her party would continue its power-sharing deal with Labor.

"If Labor changes the leader we will continue to work with the Labor party," Senator Milne said.

"The greens have committed to stability. We've done that and we've been a force of stability."

Kevin Rudd resigned his post as Foreign Minister and moved to the backbench in February after he failed in a tilt to take back the Labor leadership.