Two Australian ministers resign ahead of national elections

The Australian government faces an unexpected blow as two of its senior ministers announced surprise resignations, days after Prime Minister Julia Gillard called early national elections, Press TV reports.

Attorney General Nicola Roxon and leader of the government in the Senate Chris Evans resigned on Saturday, citing the desire to retire from the political landscape and focus on family lives.

The resignations forced the government into a reshuffle, as the Prime Minister asked Immigration Minister Chris Bowen to take over Senator Evans’ role and Parliamentary Secretary Mary Dreyfus to take on the role of the outgoing Attorney General.

Australian media described the resignations as a severe blow for the country’s ruling Labor Party, believing they would undermine Prime Minister’s message of stability and a lack of confidence in ability to win the coming national elections.

Roxon said she would quit the Parliament at the next election, while Evans, minister for tertiary education, skills, science and research, will leave the Senate within months.

Gillard on Wednesday surprised people by announcing that the country’s general election would be held on September 14, 2013. The announcement set off the longest election campaign in the country’s history as the Australian governments have traditionally revealed election dates only a few weeks in advance.

This comes as recently conducted opinion polls have suggested that Gillard’s conservative opposition opponent Tony Abbott has a better chance of winning the election.

The 51-year-old Gillard came to power in 2010 after ousting former Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. In February 2012, Gillard once again defeated Rudd in a party leadership face-off, beating him 71-31 in a secret ballot of the 103-member Labor caucus.