As the Labor Party considers going back to Kevin Rudd, a new claim has emerged that Julia Gillard's staff were writing an acceptance speech two weeks before the sudden leadership coup.
Ms Gillard is refusing to say if she knew about the preparation of the speech in her office or if she knew about secret Labor Party polling that showed she could win the ambush.
The allegations were aired last night on ABC TV's Four Corners, amid ongoing speculation that Mr Rudd wants to return to the prime ministership.
Mr Rudd refused to be interviewed for the program and his supporters say they do not want any further leadership speculation until after the Queensland election. A key backer said the new allegations were not expected to rock today's caucus meeting but could add to suspicions that Ms Gillard was aware of planning for the leadership coup.
Ms Gillard revealed that forward planning might have been done by her staff but she refused repeatedly to say whether she knew the first speech she delivered on becoming Prime Minister had been prepared in her office two weeks before then.
''I am not surprised that, whether it's people in my office or people more broadly, in the government or the Labor Party, were casting their mind where circumstances might get to,'' she said.
Pressed for a direct answer, she said: ''I've given you the answer I'm going to give you.'' In her first appearance as Prime Minister, Ms Gillard said the government had lost its way.
In Parliament yesterday, Ms Gillard paid tribute to the dignity of Mr Rudd's apology to indigenous people, on the fourth anniversary of its delivery.
Mr Rudd received rousing applause when he addressed members of the Stolen Generations at Parliament House.
Four Corners said it had been given a copy of a report commissioned by the plotters on the comparative popularity of Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard in the lead up to the coup.
The program says the survey results were kept secret from Mr Rudd but used to persuade the final waiverers in caucus to support a change of leadership.
Ms Gillard says she saw ALP polling because of her then position as deputy prime minister.
''I don't have specific recall of pages of party polling at that time, it may have included what you say, I don't have specific recall of it,'' she said.
In the lead up to the coup, Ms Gillard repeatedly said she had more chance of playing for the Western Bulldogs than becoming prime minister.
The Prime Minister's office released the full transcript of her interview with the ABC, in which she repeats that she did not make the decision to ask Mr Rudd for a leadership ballot before the showdown meeting in his office. ''No part of any of the decisions I took in 2010 was motivated by polling,'' she said.
Former Labor minister Graham Richardson admits he knew about the coup beforehand and got two powerbrokers to mend their relationship.
''I don't think I knew two weeks before, I can't remember now. But a week or so probably, but not two weeks,'' he said.
Labor backbencher Janelle Saffin said she was warned before the coup that Labor would battle to win an election under Mr Rudd.
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