He’s jokey, he’s hokey, he’s contrite, he’s frank. He’s Kevin Rudd and he’s trying to convince you he has learned his lesson.
KR #2 last night used an ABC political chat show, Q&A, to suddenly start talking about some of those events of the past 12 months which are still shaping and plaguing the ALP and the government.
Rudd did so with a beguiling combination of Dad Jokes and aw-shucks language (in which Zimbabwe becomes Zim and Americans were Yanks, factional leaders were thugsters).
The second element was a finely honed competence. Rudd has always impressed by his knowledge of foreign affairs. It’s the edge he once used to raise the prospect of competence in other areas of public management.
The third was a sense of regret and apology from a man who struggled with the big issues but, hey folks, I’m only human. Or as Rudd put it last night: “Guess what? Political leaders are not perfect.’’ And wrapping it all together was the zinger line: “I may in the future be a less trusting soul.’‘
Kevin Rudd has neither forgiven others nor foregone what he believes are his rightful ambitions at the top of Australian politics.
While conceding that he made a mistake by deferring action on an Emissions Trading Scheme - “The judgment I made then was wrong. You make mistakes in public life. That was a big one. I made it.”
Rudd also revealed or confirmed that he had in fact resisted a hardline bid in cabinet to junk the climate change response completely—“You had some folk who wanted to get rid of it altogether, that is kill the ETS as a future proposition for the country. I couldn’t abide that.’‘
So get the picture? The Visigoths of cabinet wanted to rape and pillage the ETS and if it were not for Kevin they would have had their way. But he was able to send the carbon plan off to the safety of the future before it was completely ravaged.
Rudd’s acknowledgement of flawed decision making was actually an indictment of those who sat with him in cabinet. His concession took some of the pressure off Julia Gillard, but also left hanging the possibility she rode with the Visigoths.
Kevin Rudd, never a comfortable creature of the Labor culture, also saved up a backhander for the party figures, most largely unknown to the public, who decided he had to go as PM.
It was presented as an overall outlook on Labor post the NSW election, but we know who he meant.
“And the organisation is one where still we have factional leaders who intimidate a lot of the rest of the party from getting on with the business of being an effective political force in the country,’’ he said.
“When the Labor Party’s at its best, it’s putting the nation first and the party last. The Labor Party at its best is putting its members first as opposed to factional thugsters first.”
On television last night, Kevin Rudd’s candour and self criticism seem to flop around as innocently as his famous fringe of hair. But Labor figures know that’s not quite the case.
Rudd had chosen the timing and the setting to again stick an elbow into those who undercut him last June, and make clear he wasn’t going away.
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