In April a school group from the NSW central coast was in Paris on the way back from an emotional visit to Australian war graves on France’s Western Front.
Maybe it was the excitement of a wonderful overseas trip, maybe it was homesickness that explains what happened in Paris. But the point is, it wasn’t unusual.
The pupils had stopped to take in Notre Dame Cathedral when they came across another tourist attraction usually not seen back home at Brisbane Water and Tuggerah Lakes.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had been talking with allies about Libya and was on his way to London to NOT attend the royal wedding.
He had spent ANZAC Day at the Australian National Memorial of Villers-Bretonneux, where the pupils had seen him. When they saw him again in the streets of Paris they rushed to mob him.
The evidence is the photo above: Lots of squeals and pushing into poses, and in the middle of it all a clearly delighted Kevin Rudd.
He’ll always have Paris, but in addition he has Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. Rudd is being mobbed wherever he is recognised by Australians. And is opinion polling results also resemble crowd scenes to Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s intimate circle.
I’ve seen him surrounded by autograph seekers in Parliament House as Prime Minister Gillard walked past without a pen being shoved in her direction.
As one awe-struck TV identity said last week: “It’s like when you see the face on a coin comes to life.”
He is a political celebrity after being tossed out of the prime ministership by his own party in his first term. That celebrity status will have its first anniversary next Friday, and we can be certain the coming week will be painful for Gillard, the ALP and Rudd.
The mobbing has helped sustain Rudd, but it hasn’t pumped up any ambitions to return the disfavour and challenge for the Prime Minister’s job. It is a long step from political celebrity to becoming national leader…again.
Rudd is not organising numbers or directly undermining Gillard or the government. He is immersing himself in his job and staying out of trouble.
The relationship between Gillard and Rudd is business-like, and they are not always comfortable in each other’s company. But there haven’t been any explosions of temper and bitterness. Not big ones, at least.
Rudd still believes he could and perhaps should regain the Labor leadership, but he is not converting that into a plan for leadership change. It’s more like he’s waiting for Caucus to undergo some sort of existential crisis which would admit him to to the top position.
Meanwhile, he is prepared to do his day job and if his colleagues came to the conclusion he was the best option, he would give the matter serious consideration. That, however, is a long way off if it occurs at all.
“You can sit back and mope about how you feel, and not get over it. Or you can get over it and get on with it,” he said on the TEN Network’s The Circle on Friday.
“I seek to do the latter, and get on with it. And I am very happy doing what I’m doing.”
Rudd has learned much from his removal as Prime Minister, mainly about the reality of political dynamics and personal relations.
“However busy you are as Prime Minister…you’ve still got to make time to be open to everybody, and to keep your lines of communication open with other members of Parliament,’’ he said.
“And to listen better. I think that’s probably something I’ve learned.’‘
There will be doubts he has learned anything. Some Queenslanders who watched Rudd swagger and abuse when he was a senior state bureaucrat remember him saying on taking the party leadership: “I’ve changed.”
They would be less likely to accept that line from him should he try it again.
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RT @antsharwood: Meanwhile, a case from the glass half full files. Andrew Bolt has attacked me in a much nicer way than usual today http://t.co/mQqX6rOc
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