Julia Gillard was ousted from the post of Australian prime minister on June 28 in a party room ballot, with former prime minister Kevin Rudd returning to the role after a tumultuous three years as foreign minister under Gillard in a hung parliament.

It's been a bruising three years for the Labor Party, and the latest leadership changeover comes just a few months ahead of an election in which the Labor Party is almost certain to be crushed.

Due to their slim margin of victory in the last election - which happened less than a year after Gillard ousted Rudd in another party room ballot - the Labor Party had to seek an alliance with the Australian Greens party as well as a handful of independent candidates to form government.

The opposition Coalition, led by Tony Abbott, has adopted the most negative campaigning tactics in recent history, partly due to their fury at their narrow loss and the fact they were unable to form a government despite having more elected ministers than the Labor Party.

Interestingly, poll after poll showed that the public considered both Abbott and Gillard to be incredibly unpopular leaders. It's no mystery why. Discussions I've had with observers on both sides of the political divide reflect frustration and anger at what Australian politics has devolved into.

Leaders snipe at one another behind a mask of civility, and both sides are guilty of pandering to lowest common denominators, sometimes in wildly irresponsible fashion.

Abbott has shown a willingness to recklessly forecast certain doom through hyperbole. As an example, he once said Labor's carbon tax would "wipe" the coal-mining town of Whyalla "off the map" on the day it was introduced. For the record, Whyalla is still there.

Perhaps even more irresponsibly, Abbott has endeavored to make the Australian public - and as a side effect, foreign investors - believe that the economy is tanking despite its obvious stunning achievements at present - unemployment is low and Australia's government debt is the envy of developed countries across the world.

On the other hand, Rudd hasn't offered much of a better example. He's shown a willingness to talk down to the electorate via the use of exaggerated Australian vernacular, a stark contrast to the reality of his wonkish tendencies and often ruthless approach, as evidenced by his relentless quest to reclaim the leadership at all costs.

Over the past few days, a litany of stories revealing the full extent of his destabilizing influence on the party have been published, and they show a party drifting toward annihilation at the next election, unsure of how to resolve its own internal schisms.

While Gillard may not have indulged in quite the same level of aggressive politicking as Abbott and Rudd, she was the first of them to take down a sitting prime minister in a party room ballot, robbing voters of their right to choose a leader. She paid the price at the last election, and has continued to do so ever since.

It was logical for these leaders to slip into these patterns. Rudd's contrived folksy charm served him well in his first quest for the lodge, and Abbott's talent for finding the weak point in his opponent and hammering it relentlessly has yielded obvious results.

Unfortunately, these approaches have meant honest discussions with the electorate have taken a back seat to whatever strategy of the day delivers short-term gains in the polls - the latest gain being Labor's bounce in the polls in the wake of Rudd's installation, which still places them behind the opposition.

In the long term, both parties are suffering from these short-term solutions, as voters grow increasingly wary of claims made by either side.

It's not solely the fault of politicians. The fact the public knows so much about these personality clashes is because news stories about it are in demand, and journalists give the public what they want.

Ultimately, until serious news and serious politicians are demanded by the public, serious policy efforts are embraced and hyperbole is rejected, circuses will be the order of the day. But to have any hope of improving this state of affairs, Australia needs real leadership that puts policy ahead of personality.

The author is an editor with the Global Times. daviddawson@globaltimes.com.cn