The vitriol and animosity pouring from government frontbenchers is damaging Australia's national interests and international reputation, Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop says.
Ms Bishop said Kevin Rudd's decision to resign as foreign minister probably to challenge for the Labor leadership had brought the government to the edge of collapse.
'Kevin Rudd himself alluded to the fact that this ongoing leadership crisis within Labor is having an effect on our international relations and certainly on our international reputation,' Ms Bishop told ABC TV on Thursday.
'This situation is untenable, and we need a general election so that the people can have their say.'
Ms Bishop said there were tensions in every political party, but the comments directed at Mr Rudd from the Labor front bench were extraordinary.
'I've never witnessed, and I'm sure nobody else has witnessed, the kind of vitriol and animosity that's pouring out of senior cabinet ministers against each other.
'It's now open warfare.'
Ms Bishop said the 'civil war' between the Rudd and Gillard camps, and possibly a group backing Labor minister Simon Crean, was divisive and damaging 'to the national interest and our international reputation.'
