Prev
Next

‘I want to sledge them’: Jess Rudd on her Dad’s demise

Alexandra Carlton

by Alexandra Carlton

02 Aug 06:00am

Must Reads

We don’t deserve this huge, exciting scientific project - this is a caption

We don’t deserve this huge, exciting scientific project

41

Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics - this is a caption

Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics

60

Please enter your password - this is a caption

Please enter your password

39

Filed under: Election 2010, Jessica Rudd, Kevin Rudd, Labor Leadership

88 comments

Here’s what I would’ve done if I were Kevin Rudd’s daughter, Jessica, and I was watching my dad’s anguished final press conference as PM on June 24.

Jessica Rudd, right, at her Dad's last presser as PM. Photo: Kym Smith

I would’ve broken ranks and yelled, “He f—-ing got asked to step down all of you f—-ing idiots. I’m Rudd’s f—-ing daughter and he did not f—-ing resign. Gillard is a selfish piece of shift [sic], who cares about herself and not the f—-ing Labor Party. Have fun with the country, I hope to never vote for this god foresaken party every again [sic]. F—- all of you.”

Oh no, wait, that’s what I would’ve yelled if I were Sarah Henderson, daughter of Fritz Henderson, the former CEO of General Motors. Which, of course, is precisely what she did yell (with the obvious noun substitutions), on the GM Facebook page just days after her father was f—-ing asked to step down and replaced by one of the company’s board members late last year. 

In contrast, Jessica Rudd witnessed her Dad’s final moments at the top with as much dignity as anyone could muster when watching a loved one choke his dreams away. It wasn’t easy. In this month’s madison magazine, Jess recalls that day. “I tried to hold it together,” she writes. “Mum said I wouldn’t cry if I used the tip of my tongue to tickle the roof of my mouth which was good in theory. [But] I lost it. Mascara streamed down my face.”

It wasn’t the first time Jess had watched her Dad take a hit to the guts, of course. Nor the last. She’s presently out of the country but if she’d searched her father’s name on Twitter any time in the last three days she would have been treated to countless gags about his recent gall-bladder operation (most along the side-splitting lines of “They should remove the stitches from the knife while they’re there!” Side-splitting, get it? Man, I could so easily be a celebrated Twitter funster if I put a little effort in).

It is, of course, all part of the game. “Intellectually, I understand it’s just the nature of public life,” she writes in madison of rolling with the punches that inevitably came – and continue to come - her father’s way. “[But] when people sledge him, I want to sledge them.” The fact she doesn’t speaks volumes, not just about Jess herself but about the sort of values her father – and in fairness her mother too – consider important. Dignity and self-control.

Her first novel, Campaign Ruby, which will be released just before the election, also tells me something about Jess, and by proxy, Kevin. It’s chick lit. It has a light, unselfconscious humour and easy tone. She swears a little bit in it. There are sexy scenes. But it has warmth and heart. She could have used it as a platform to sledge back at everyone who’d crossed her Dad. She hasn’t. She’s alright. Her parents did good. Perhaps her Dad isn’t made entirely of electrical cabling and circuit boards.

I know something about Tony Abbott from the fact that his daughter Frances calls him a ‘lame gay churchy loser’. Not the revelation that’s he’s a lame gay churchy loser – anyone could tell you that - but more that Abbott has raised the sort of daughters who can call their Dad a lame gay churchy loser and he doesn’t mind too much. Which, oddly, makes him seem like less of a lame gay churchy loser than the established narrative would suggest. 

I’m willing to bet John Howard would never have allowed his kids to call him a lame gay churchy loser.

The most revealing political offspring ever is Bristol Palin. She says it best by saying nothing at all. Her mother, former VP nominee and freelance Alaskan governor Sarah Palin is a hardline, hubristic Christian fundamentalist with a zero-tolerance attitude to pre-marital sex. Her eldest daughter Bristol got pregnant, unmarried, at 17. Ergo Sarah is a hypocritical lunatic.

It’s unfortunate Julia Gillard doesn’t have kids – not because it makes her less of a woman or gives her a diminished understanding of families. But because we could wedge them under a microscope and prod indelicate outbursts out of them that would give us a much clearer insight into the woman herself. 

It should be mandatory for politicians’ kids to open a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Give the legal ones a couple of drinks to loosen their typing fingers a little. Goad them with a few pointy jabs. If we really want to know the truth about who our leaders are, they’re the ones who’ll spill. 

And they’d want to hope they’d raised a Jessica Rudd. 

Madison magazine’s September issue – featuring Jessica Rudd’s personal memories of growing up with her Dad - is on stands today, Monday August 2.

Don’t miss: Get The Punch in your inbox every day

Get The Punch on Facebook

Most commented

431Australia, you have nothing to fear but fear itself
390There's no one Thomson won't burn to save his skin
336Animal experiments won't cure me from cancer
313Thomson didn't answer the question everyone is asking
266Who murdered the Arts degree?
246A big day for Thomson, who thus far is guilty of nothing...
231South Australia. It's the middle bottom bit.
231Craig Thomson speaks. Meanwhile, in Australia...

88 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Eric says:

      06:22am | 02/08/10

      “Sarah Palin is a hardline, hubristic Christian fundamentalist with a zero-tolerance attitude to pre-marital sex. Her eldest daughter Bristol got pregnant, unmarried, at 17. Ergo Sarah is a hypocritical lunatic.”

      Leaving aside the mindless personal abuse, where do you get the idea that Sarah Palin’s daughter’s actions somehow make Sarah a hypocrite?

      If Sarah herself had got pregnant before marriage, while denouncing pre-marital sex, then she might be considered a hypocrite. But the fact that her daughter has a different opinion doesn’t.

      And the fact that Sarah stood by her daughter throughout, says a lot of good things about her character.

      Reply

    • Skippy says:

      08:09am | 02/08/10

      Spot on Eric, I was wondering exactly the same. As parents we do the best we know how - we have no control what life path they choose, despite our very best efforts to raise them as decent individuals, yes they may grow up to make choices we don’t agree with and they may even ‘disappoint’, I sure have let my folks down at times, but support is the key. Dust them off and start the journey again - crying over spilt milk only makes it salty for the cat, as they say.

    • shane says:

      08:37am | 02/08/10

      Because the rightwing nut jobs in the USA have no consideration for family, truth, and things like free association.

      I remember reading somewhere about 3 Republican senators ranting about the family values of group of democrat senators. The amusing and telling thing was that the 3 Republicans had 6 marriages between them, the democrats 3 (all still with their first wives).

      Now, I couldn’t care less how many marriages a person may have had, or when and how they chose to have their children.

      The blatant hypocrisy usual found in right wingers telling everyone else what to do is I think Eric’s point.

    • Liz says:

      10:41am | 02/08/10

      As is the case in many families in America a teen pregnancy very often results in an adoption.At least that didn’t happen.

    • Robert Smissen, rural SA, God's own country says:

      10:57am | 02/08/10

      What it says Eric, is that she is absolute crap as a parent, if she couldn’t teah her own daughter about safe sex, how could she expect to have a leadership role in the world, basically she is just trailer trash with connections.

    • Brad of Bentleigh says:

      12:20pm | 02/08/10

      “Leaving aside the personal abuse…” why leave it aside? This article is, and that paragraph in particular, is one of the most offensive thing I’ve seen written here. The rigid standards the site moderators use (allowing only what they see fit) should also be applied to the contributers.
      It’s apparently acceptable for the Left to attack Sarah Palin in the most despicable ways, and that even lefty types in Australia think it somehow is comment worthy here, suggests that that hatred they feel towards conservatives is without bound. I find it noteworthy that some of the respondants find it acceptable to stereotype when criticising “the right”, and at the same time, they use the term “hypocrit” without any thought what-so-ever of looking inwardly… it’s laughable really.

    • Lisa says:

      01:07pm | 02/08/10

      Overall I agree with what you are saying, Eric… but perhaps you could help me with another aspect to of this line of conversation…

      I have always wondered… why is it hypocritical for a person who has experienced pre-marital sex to become a supporter of ‘married sex is best’ as a result of their own experiences?

      It seems that in Australian popular culture and media, only one approach to relationships and sexuality is acceptable, and any other opinion, regardless of its nuances, is automatically derided .

    • Stewart Henstock says:

      03:18pm | 02/08/10

      You obviously haven’t a clue what Sarah Palin is about except for what the left wing media write about her…which is 90% rubbish.

    • David C says:

      03:26pm | 02/08/10

      I agree, I am sick of the lament from inner city coffee shop types about the Americanisaton of Australia yet at the same time paying homage to Obama and sticking the knife in Palin in a very Huffington Post kind of way
      Dont we have our own hypocrites in Oz?

    • Not voting for faceless men says:

      06:02pm | 02/08/10

      It looks like I wasn’t the only one realizing the ridiculous Sarah Palin slander.
      Another issue I will mention. You would hear such publication write something like that about the Clintons.
      But they’d never write a sympathetic piece about the Abbott’s girls. You can clearly notice that by reviewing what she decided to talk about Abbott…latte drinking inner city stupidity indeed.
      Not to worry Abbott will be the next PM nonetheless….

    • Leah says:

      09:18am | 03/08/10

      Clearly the writer doesn’t understand the definition of ‘hypocrite’ (unfortunate for someone whose career revolves around words).

      For the author’s benefit: a hypocrite is someone whose own actions contradict their own words. Not someone whose child’s actions contradict their parent’s words.

    • Grow up says:

      10:38pm | 04/08/10

      I’m really quite surprised that the issue of Sarah Palin’s hypocrisy is at all contentious.
      Republicans have flat-out refused to fund or support any form of sex education for teenagers, preferring to allocate all funding to “abstinence” teachings on religious and (head-in-the-sand) “moral” grounds.
      The fact that the poster-woman for Republican values herself was unable to prevent her own child (who I’m sure has been brow-beaten by the same abstinence message for the past decade) from unintentionally falling pregnant hasn’t deterred one Republican from insisting that the abstinence model is an effective and responsible one.
      The fact that teenage pregnancies also rose dramatically during the 8 year Republican tenure also apparently fails to dissuade the faithful as to the efficacy of their righteous crusade.
      Hypocrisy, plain and simple.
      “Forget that I wasn’t able to convince my own daughter - let me assure you this is the best policy for your children.”
      Absolutely absurd.

    • Rod Blaine says:

      08:31am | 12/08/10

      Why? Because I’m confident that Ms Carlton would apply the same rigorous yardstick to Bob Hawke’s views on drug addiction, to Al Gore’s views on drink driving, and to Ted Kennedy’s views on the rights of women - that a politician’s strict standards are demonstrably wrong if her or his younger relatives don’t abide by them.

      It’s not just a left/ right partisan attack. You don’t reach the position of editor of Madison magazine by thinking in soundbites culled from Highlights Of Jon Stewart. Instead, you need to be a rigorous, consistent thinker.

    • bec says:

      07:03am | 02/08/10

      I think that Abbott can at least be a little self-effacing by quoting his daughter’s assessment is actually pretty cute. Not impressive enough to make me vote for him, but it’s warm and humanising, at least.

      Though I am disappointed in Jessica Rudd’s un-Australianism. She could have at least called them all “slack moles”, threatened to glass them in a giant liquor-barn of a Saturday night, and then stuck up the rude finger at them as she screeched off in a decal’d-up Maloo ute with a giant southern cross decal on the back. *That* might actually win votes from the sad and sorry electorate in this sad and sorry election.

      Reply

    • Davo says:

      09:08am | 02/08/10

      Ha ha ha bec, it’s called democracy and every one of those sad and sorry members of the sad and sorry electorate are required to vote in this sad and sorry election.
      If you don’t like it find a country with a benevolant dictator with your values and outlook and head on over.
      I think the presence of “sad and sorry” bogans who get around in “decal’d-up Maloo utes with a giant southern cross decal on the back” in our country is a great part of the rich diversity of our multicultural melting pot!
      Just as luvie inner city Prius drivers with “Free tibet” and “Justics for assylum seekers” stickers are a great part of it too…

    • bec says:

      10:13am | 02/08/10

      Ah, yes, because nothing says “multicultural melting pot” like a “f*** off, we’re full” sticker. By the way, telling me to leave the country because my personal values differ to yours is… well, it’s ironic, but stupid at the same time. Like racists who get fake tans.

      Heads up: don’t live in the inner city, don’t drive a Prius, not pathetic enough to reduce my personal philosophies to a bumper sticker.

    • Davo says:

      10:48am | 02/08/10

      Please concentrate on what I actually wrote bec.

      F*** off we’re full is still part of the mix, whether you like it or not.

      I didn’t tell you to leave the country because my personal values differ to yours. You were the one expressing dissatisfaction with the attitudes of the electorate. I merely provided you with an option if you are too distressed about the types of people you share our country with.

      I didn’t vote for KRudd and have always believed he was bad for Australia, but I didn’t denegrate the intelligence of the 52% whose vote ended up with him, i just accepted it as part of the cost/benefit of living in the electorate.

      I didn’t categorise you as a prius driving luvvie, so don’t be too sensitive bec. Nonetheless it’s nice to know you don’t…

    • Brad of Bentleigh says:

      12:25pm | 02/08/10

      Bec’s post and Davo’s reply, sum up, better than is usually the case, two extremes of Australian society. Well put both of you… we could also talk about bogan tribal tatoos (as well as the sthn cross ones), and those palastinian scarves that are popular with young impressionable lefties these days… perhaps we could have a really fun discussion taking the mickey out of the various stereotypes, as those highlighted are well and truly valid.

      Don’t snipe at each other too much, there’s fun to be had smile

    • Davo says:

      12:52pm | 02/08/10

      This is fun Brad… Almost as much fun as discussing the MySchool website with a teacher wink

    • Brad of Bentleigh says:

      01:50pm | 02/08/10

      hehe… I’d throw in an “lol” but I’ll then have to cast aspersions on myself for conforming to another steoreotype smile

      Good one!

    • Against the Man says:

      07:32am | 02/08/10

      It doesn’t matter whether gillard becomes PM or not because she will have a shameful legacy in Australian political history. She is a very selfish individual as seen in her personal and political life. Abbott may not be perfect but he hasn’t sunk to the lows that Gillard has to satisfy his ego. Gillard should be ashamed of herself, but each day she is out on the campaign trail talking bull without an ounce of guilt shows us her true character.

      Reply

    • John A Neve says:

      09:57am | 02/08/10

      A the M,
      What exactly has your post to do with the contents of the article?
      Does your mind always move in one plane?
      Rather than “Gillard” being “ashamed of herself”, I think you should be for posting such tripe.

    • Confused says:

      10:33am | 02/08/10

      You’ve attacked Gillard’s character for her actions in her personal and political life, yet I have no idea which particular actions you’re talking about. Could you clarify with some examples?

    • Interloper says:

      11:07am | 02/08/10

      Sorry to mention this, but Gillard already became PM. You’re a bit late.

      And everything I’ve ever heard about her suggests that she’s extremely generous in her private life, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.

      I like the premise that you can tell a lot about a parent’s character by looking at their children, but I don’t think you can tell much about a person’s character by looking at a lack of children.

    • James1 says:

      11:17am | 02/08/10

      Why should she be ashamed of her personal choices?  Do you mean to say that every unmarried childless person should be ashamed?  Like Confused, I am very confused.

    • dead to me says:

      02:08pm | 02/08/10

      If stabbing your boss in the back, carrying babies for political photos when in real life they mean nothing to you, not answering straight forward questions with a straight forward answers and discovering through leaks (I’m assuming these are true until proven otherwise and she isn’t really dening them) what you really want to do for Australians are all things to be proud of then Julia has nothing to be ashamed of.

    • Do I Have To Vote? says:

      07:31pm | 02/08/10

      @ Dead to Me…you forgot praying for KRudd when you’re an atheist

    • biff says:

      07:45am | 02/08/10

      Alex, let there be no tears for Rudd. Politics in Oz is a blood sport and Rudd played the game hard. He even showed contempt for our national parliament by turning his back on elected members from the other side when being asked questions.

      Reply

    • Irene Faulkes says:

      07:45am | 02/08/10

      No one deserves the treatment Rudd has received from first Gillard, of all people, then the Party and lastly the public on Twitter.  Give the man a break.  He has many fine points, say I, who would never vote for him from the point of view of politics as well as otheris.  He is a decent Australian and has reared a wonderful daughter, having a faithful wife.  I felt sorry to see his son standing there.  Now he also is a hero!  Those who have a very bad opinion of Rudd should never vote for Gillard as in policies and their implementation she was 100% with Kevin and the other two, one being Wayne Swan, now Deputy P.M.  Of course, a commendation for Kevin is not necessarily a vote for him or his party.  He does have brains.  He did come across as a P.M.  On the world’s scene, he was most respected and that is a plus for all Australians.  Now, what of Julia?  Does she have those qualities of leadership?

      Reply

    • Teddie says:

      07:50am | 02/08/10

      Whether Sarah Palin is a hypocritical lunatic would depend on whether she herself had pre-marital sex, and only partly on what her daughter did.  Whether John Howard could control what his children said or did is also a moot point.

      The fact Kevin Rudd seemed to use excerpts out of his daughter’s book in his “farewell speech"is interesting.

      Reply

    • Gary Cox says:

      08:00am | 02/08/10

      Coincidently Sarah Henderson is the Liberal candidate for Corangamite in Western Victoria.

      Reply

    • Bruce Tindale says:

      08:01am | 02/08/10

      I find the fact that young people and children of aspiring politicians and leaders have to endure the barbs and slings of the community in general horriffic. I believe the lack of respect, name calling and labelling someone as a loser or dud for our leaders especially in electronic and print media columns and such is at best below us.

      The bigger issue in all this being that Jess Rudd and those other political leader offspring are smeared by faceless, gutless, guttersnipes who hide behind the anonymity of usernames and email so that when offended by the vitriol and utter tripe of their parents detractors, they don’t get the opportunity to take them to task or court to sue for the hurtful things said of their respective parents. Really brave that is.

      My challenge is, Punch, give Jess Rudd one day free of crap and hurtful things written about her father by the faceless and gutless, same for the Abbott girls. They deserve at least that.

      Reply

    • Polly says:

      08:06am | 02/08/10

      Given that Jessica Rudd is not all that impressed with Gillard’s ousting her father from his prime ministers seat - she is obviously blinded by her fathers faults which were many. The first two years of him being in office saw him travelling extensively and stopped abruptly after the Copenhagen fiasco. Rudd hid himself for quite sometime after that fiasco where he was reported as saying - Those Rat ****ing Chinese have Rat****ed us. Not a prime example but a prime minister should not speak like that. So Jessica if you father has a potty mouth - what are the chances that you have too?

      Reply

    • Teddie says:

      08:32am | 02/08/10

      Jessica’s book theme suggests she was expecting his demise.

    • Angela says:

      10:24am | 03/08/10

      “she is obviously blinded by her fathers faults which were many” - well, I guess that’s what families should be for - to love you and feel your pain regardless of what the electorate think of you.  I might add, an electorate who don’t personally know you the way your family do and are therefore largely speaking from ignorance.

      You seem like a nice girl, Jessica.  Keep it up.

    • Rosie says:

      08:47am | 02/08/10

      Julia Gillard doesn’t have to have kids for the public to know who the real Julia is. The real Julia is a hypocrite, calculating puppet who depends on the “Polling Results” for her political moves. You can be assured this woman is not genuine and is drunk with the thought that with her intellect, gift of the gab and hand actions has everything it takes to woo voters over to her side.

      Look at her, after a bad week brought about by their stupidity in thinking that Kevin Rudd will just go away and do what he is told by the Union Powers they find that Rudd is now a thorn in their side right up until the 21st of Aug and after the Elections win or lose.

      Wake up Australia, the woman is a fake and will change to suit her needs and what the Polls are saying. Labor was down in the Polls and because Julia had no choice has decided to change into what she says is the real Julia. The other reason was because the media kept saying that both Tony Abbot & Julia Gillard were not themselves and were being restrained when the campaign started. Go ahead Julia change your style into a more fake Julia but leave Tony Abbott out of if because he is doing very well, Thank you!

      At the beginning of the campaign Labor desperately wanted Tony Abbott to remain the same Tony Abbott as before he became the leader of the Opposition. Thank God Tony Abbott, matured and realized that he wasn’t born into the Position and now had responsibility to lead the Liberal Party to Govern Australia if they win. He is doing well and is improving day by day whereas Ms Gillard is still finding herself.

      I am so furious in the way she has used Kevin Rudd’s gall bladder surgery as a tool for her selfish needs in saying words like, so wrong so wrong, shameful, despicable etc of the Liberal Party to be treating poor Kevin Rudd the way they have while he is in hospital. (Alexander Downner Kevin 007 ) Please give us a break, this is the same fake Julia who knifed him in the back for the top position after swearing black and blue that she would never be disloyal to him. Worse still none from the Labor Party have spoken to him since the 23rd of June and Rudd is still a honourable man and she is hoping, wishing and praying for a speedy recovery! A hypocrite in 2 counts, which God is she praying to????

      To Jess I would be hoping that Labor loses for no other reason but to teach the calculating Julia Gillard a bloody good lesson and a good chance for the Party to seriously think about ending all control from the Union Bullies eg Paul Howes and have a fresh start. Your father won the Primeministership without the Union Bullies unlike the fake Julia Gillard.

      Reply

    • Rob r Charteris says:

      09:34am | 02/08/10

      Rosie says:08:47am; Please point out exactly what has made Julia a hypocrite. Because nothing you have dribbled on about above makes Julia a hypocrite. I am begining to believe your just a grumpy old woman and mostly likely a hypocrite too.

    • dead to me says:

      10:10am | 02/08/10

      I believe a great coalition add would be Gillard as a puppet having her strings pulled by Mark Arbib and Bill Shorten. They are the real dynamic duo controlling Australia.

    • MarK says:

      11:02am | 02/08/10

      Rob the fact that Julia is happy to state how she voted and gave an explanation of what happened in cabinet vis parenting payments and pension rises and then hides behind “cabinet confidentiality” when it suits makes her a hypocrite.

      How are we to judge her when she only gives us selective information?

      @dead to me - while it doesn’t show Arbib or Shorten the puppet add is out there. To be honest reckon if you showed 1000 people in “a shopping centre” a picture of Shorten and Arbib 950 would not know either of them by site and 990 would not know both.

      Faceless machine men indeed. Better get used to Shorten though. The stoush between Combet and Shorten for the prize after the election will be a doozie. A real Hawke vs Keating rerun.

    • Rob a Charteris says:

      11:26am | 02/08/10

      MarK says:11:02am; So just because she has questioned aspects of a policy means she some how voted against (which she never did) and so is now a hypocrite. As usual MarK you pull trinkets of what you think is real and turn it into assumptions then reality. You live in a very wierd world and you claim the ALP is full of spin.

    • Do I Have To Vote? says:

      07:37pm | 02/08/10

      The puppet ad plus vision of Julia in 80s -90s strident socialist mode will appear in the last week of the campaign…I will be stunned if they don’t

    • Adam says:

      08:58am | 03/08/10

      MarK spot on mate.
      If Australian politics is a blood sport Combet and Shorten should be the main event.
      Wonder who the unions will support..?

    • Inside the Lodge. says:

      08:49am | 02/08/10

      From Rudd’s countenance on his day of demise, I suspect that the knife was much, much sharper and deeper than we have been permitted to know.  We don’t usually see that level of public pain unless it’s related to family loss. 

      I felt uncomfortable that Gillard and Rudd sent stand-in note-takers to national security meetings.  How seriously were PM Rudd and Deputy Gillard taking national security? 

      Gillard’s suddenly delighted welcoming of Rudd to campaign for Labor outside his electorate was an astounding turnaround. Banished as a loose canon a few weeks ago, yet suddenly re-welcomed to curry public favour. 

      Gillard is attempting to manipulate both sides of troublesome double-sided Kevin.  Gillard excused her unworthy ascension by saying her government had gone off the track.  She was Rudd’s co-pilot, co-driver, co-author, co-partner, turned co-conspirator with Shorten, Arbib, Feney and the others.  Gillard attempts to dine out on Rudd’s downfall, presenting herself as a better option.  Then last week, suddenly reinvented by Gillard as an “honourable” man, Rudd is falsely welcomed into Gillard’s campaign. 

      This has been a seriously incompetent government, further destabilised by union hack involvement and it’s looking shadier every day.

      The Lodge is not a family home of reward for bad governance.

      Reply

    • wake up! says:

      11:28am | 02/08/10

      I agree,  Julia is attempting to keep Rudd quiet by giving him offerings at the same time putting all the blame on him for a Government that “had lost its way.”  Everything she does is for a political purpose, putting aside anything that is good for the country as a whole, instead focussing on doing whatever she needs to do to get elected to become PM.

    • Phil says:

      03:26pm | 02/08/10

      Spot on assessment so far.

      A customer of mine going back 21 months was faced with needing to shed some staff. Walking around the car park with him we saw 6 cars with Kevin 07 stickers. Later that evening at knock off, we watched who went to those cars.

      Without telling them the reasons for this, but that work had dried up which they knew, he simply felt they voted for change, so decided to give it to them. Those 6 were retrenched and are no longer are employed by him.

      Can you really imagine Gillard representing us on the world stage. FFS Tim the boozer at international events, swigging all the good plonk.

      Hey they all do it. They all go for the good red wine.

    • Angela says:

      10:29am | 03/08/10

      Phil says: 03:26pm | 02/08/10

      Retrenching someone on the basis of political affiliation says rather more about the employer concerned than the political party supported - after all, in this country, voting is obligatory.  Nasty and disgraceful.

    • Kieran MacGillicuddy says:

      09:03am | 02/08/10

      Short version:

      Jessica Rudd is as boring and robot-like as her father.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      11:38am | 02/08/10

      What, no bat-s..t ?

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      09:37am | 02/08/10

      I guess no internship overseas in the USA for Jessica like John Howard wrangled for his son. Now there was a blantant piece of nepotism if there ever was one….

      Reply

    • WayneT says:

      02:48pm | 02/08/10

      And this cost the Australian taxpayer how?  So you’re saying that given the chance you wouldn’t do the same thing if there was a chance for your kid or a friend to get a job where you work, you wouldn’t do it too?  So Johnnie should pass up a golden opportunity to give his child a leg up with his career just so he wouldn’t be seen showing favouritism?

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      04:18pm | 02/08/10

      @WayneT- I would endorse nepotism and corruption? Hell no. I wouldn’t give a job to a mate or relative based upon their connection to me, even if they qualified and Johnnie should have led by example…..

    • Holly says:

      10:20am | 02/08/10

      Speaking of nepotism what about the bail out of Howard’s brothers failed business.  Stan had spent all the worker’s entitlements and did not have money to pay them out so government stepped in to pay. 

      Apart from that I could not for the life of me get the point of this article except perhaps that the writer had been instructed to get the Rudd name into the headline on some beat up pretext.

      Reply

    • MarK says:

      10:25am | 02/08/10

      Holly it is ALL about Kev.

      That is all.

    • Clare De Mayo says:

      10:46am | 02/08/10

      So, this article is the fantasy response of Kevin’s daughter, which we are meant to applaud for not happening. Right. So the author gets to insult Julia Gillard, but not really, because it’s really the fantasy Jessica doing it. Right. What exactly was your point Alexandra…oh yes….‘we can’t tell who the real Julia is because we can’t ask her children. She doesn’t have children remember!’
      OK, So you have painted Kevin as the wonderful father with a delightfully silent daughter and Julia has no counter. Clever, but terribly deceptive writing.

      Reply

    • Press says:

      11:07am | 02/08/10

      Nup. This article is a soft plug for Madison magazine, nothing more. Check the author bio.

    • Gregg says:

      11:00am | 02/08/10

      Is this article to promote Jessica’s book or what exactly?

      Reply

    • 6c legs says:

      11:44am | 02/08/10

      no, it’s to remind us all that JG doesn’t have kids, that she isn’t even married. (shock horror!) And that while Rudd was HATED by the conservatives (I refuse to call this opposition, Liberal) and called for his sacking numerous times they just can’t stand that it actually happend!

      It just always comes down to the “born to rule” mentality for me.  The really mean spirited posts on sites like this always come from the mad monks supporters, and That tells me more about Him (& them) than any amount of articles like the above does.

      It’s only right that Ms Rudd support her father (over his ‘resignation’). But this article isn’t even from her.

    • Jo says:

      11:07am | 02/08/10

      Comment by Journalist “I would’ve broken ranks and yelled, “He f—-ing got asked to step down all of you f—-ing idiots. I’m Rudd’s f—-ing daughter and he did not f—-ing resign. Gillard is a selfish piece of shift [sic], who cares about herself and not the f—-ing Labor Party. Have fun with the country, I hope to never vote for this god foresaken party every again [sic]. F—- all of you.”
      Oh no, wait, that’s what I would’ve yelled if I were Sarah Henderson, daughter of Fritz Henderson, the former CEO of General Motors. Which, of course, is precisely what she did yell (with the obvious noun substitutions), on the GM Facebook page just days after her father was f—-ing asked to step down and replaced by one of the company’s board members late last year.”

      5% of the words in this are f-ing it is no wonder there is concern about the standard of English being taught in our schools. One must ask the question did all of these f-ing’s make the article any more readable.

      I would suggest not. Better use of our wonderful English language would have made it much more interesting to read.

      Reply

    • matt sutton says:

      11:42am | 02/08/10

      I don’t support the Labour Party but you’d have to have a hard heart not to feel something for the Rudd Family. 2 Years ago I found some distasteful graffiti in Sydney and photographed this. Little did I know it was prophetic? http://mattsutton.com.au/blog/?p=775

      Reply

    • OldGirl says:

      12:08pm | 02/08/10

      You would have to have no empathy, if you did feel for this family. I am not that hard hearted. I like Kevin Rudd and I don’t think I am alone in feeling like this. I wish him all the best and I hope he has a speedy recovery. Sadly that revolting Alexander Downer has barely allowed time for Mr Rudds anesthetic to wear off because he launched his rubbish . I think the Rudd family has behaved admirably in the face of this media speculation, but I hope now he starts fighting backing and suing

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      12:56pm | 02/08/10

      I have empathy yet do not feel for Kevin or his family. I have more empathy for the 150+ boat people who died from his and Gillards stupid policy.

      I don’t like being lied to, I don’t like being decieved, I don’t like insecure people and I sure as hell don’t like Kevin Rudd. The man couldn’t even run a country for a full term, despite having record levels of popularity and a non-existent opposition for a majority of the term. This after, from all reports, decades of uninhibited ambition for power.

      Put Australians first, your re-election second, hopefully a lesson learned for future politicians? Somehow I doubt it.

    • OldGirl says:

      01:19pm | 02/08/10

      Adam that’s your opinion and I respect that but I am still entitled to mine. Be it Liberal or Labor Politician I would still feel dismayed and saddened that any Australian was treated as badly as Kevin Rudd.
      Not content with ousting him, the press is still crucifying him and why? He’s not the leader anymore. I am an Australian first and I do feel for my fellow Aussies no matter what party

    • Marvin H says:

      02:35pm | 02/08/10

      Adam Diver is right and he is a good Labor supporter, anyone who feel’s for Kevin Rudd and was going to vote Green should put aside their differences and vote Labor, because the alternative is people like Alexander Downer on the other side ready to put in the boot. I feel sorry for Kev, but Julia Gillard will make a good PM

    • Andrew says:

      04:51pm | 02/08/10

      Sorry Old Girl, but Rudd did incredible harm, left a record debt - most of which was thrown at imports rather than our own economy, and managed to make the country even more divisive than it was before: You’re racist if you support the policies that Gillard now defends, the class warfare of the RSPT, the demonisation of those who question leading the world in ETS’ing your own industries to the grave (a policy they threw straight in the bin where it belongs) - I could go on.

      If the rule is “terrible govt but now he’s no longer PM so leave him alone” fair enough, except that:
      a) Since he’s still in the parliament and apparently campaigning not just for reelection in his seat but also doing a Keating from the backbench, he’s still fair game - AND
      b) Same rule’s got to apply to JWH in the lefty press - he’s been retired for 3 years and still cops it, even though there’s NO risk of him ever running again.

    • Kirk says:

      12:10pm | 02/08/10

      Your Sarah Palin rant was off the mark… Yes, Sarah is a christian, but she’s hardly fundamentalist (or “zero-tolerance”) on the issue of pre-marital sex. For instance, she supports sex-education in schools (which the fundamentalist christians tend not to).  Keep it classy, Alexandra.

      Reply

    • A Bob says:

      12:44pm | 02/08/10

      The only sex-ed she supports is abstinence only.

      She is a fundamentalist, pentacostal Christian. Look for the video of her being excorcised against witchcraft by a Kenyan ‘pastor’.

    • 6c legs says:

      01:45pm | 02/08/10

      “Kirk”, mate, there’s ‘spin’, and then there’s full blown twin-tub washing machine, Spin.

      And your version of SP’s values is as shagged out as an over spun towling nappy

    • Ziggy says:

      12:47pm | 02/08/10

      Dear Alexandra - whatever her faults Sarah Palin is sexy and powerful. Is that what irks you?
      She will have a major say in determining the next President of the USA.
      You don’t have to like it - but that is a fact!
      Now please list for me the thousands of other ivy league left wing nuts in the USA that will have that influence.
      I can think of just one and she should not be on the list because she is not a left wing nut but a clear thinking moderate - her name is Hilary Clinton.
      Now go and take a couple of Bex and have a good lie down.

      Reply

    • John says:

      04:18pm | 02/08/10

      The irrascible old Ziggy at it again. He is funny though. I’d be careful not to get entangled with him Alex. The cunning old fox will destroy you every time. Why? Because, once again, he is right.

    • AlexC says:

      05:30pm | 02/08/10

      Ziggy says: 12:47pm | 02/08/10
      Dear Alexandra - whatever her faults Sarah Palin is sexy and powerful. Is that what irks you?

      No. The faults irk me.

    • PatC says:

      01:06pm | 02/08/10

      I think the idea that children are a reflection of their parents is absolute crap. My mother passed away when I was a preschooler and I was raised by an abusive alcoholic father in between stints in equally abusive (in a different sense) institutions.
      One of my school friends (not from the institutions) was raised by a wonderful loving couple with strong moral and work ethics.
      I am happily married with 2 terrific adult children. Apart from 2 weeks just after I left school I’ve been in full time employment all my life. My partner and I own our own home and are living a pretty typical middle class lifestyle. I lost touch with my school friend in my 20’s. By then he had spent his teens getting involved in drugs and becoming a violently aggressive heroin addict.

      Reply

    • The Scarlet Pimpernel says:

      01:08pm | 02/08/10

      ‘’...the sort of values her father – and in fairness her mother too – consider important. Dignity and self-control.
      ‘’ How you could possibly put that in an article about Kevin Rudd boggles the mind. This is the man who kicked a hole in the wall of his parliamentary office because something didn’t go quite his way, tore strips off an RAAF NCO because his in-flight meal wasn’t what he wanted and had a hissy-fit because his hair-dryer, or make-up case or something wasn’t available prior to a TV promo. The man has all the charisma of a three-day corpse and half the self-control of a PCP user. I’m just glad a I don’t have to pay to read the complete rubbish that appears in here sometimes. Oh, and while I have the mike ... can the lady who spelled ‘moll’ as ‘mole’, kindly refrain in future.

      Reply

    • Chris L says:

      02:28pm | 02/08/10

      Just curious, SP, but were any of those rumours ever proven to be true?

    • Gary says:

      05:10pm | 02/08/10

      Chris L. The campaign of lies and rumors started shortly after Labor came to power and continue in one form or another to this very day. The only instance that has been proven, or actually disproven in this instance, was the pathetic attempt to smear Rudd with a ‘ute’, and that fell apart because they actually produced the co-conspirator (something Gretch?). They learnt from that mistake. DON’T REVEAL YOUR SOURCES.
      This opposition has blocked legislation, lied, rumored their way into a probable election winning position.
      They truely are ‘born to rule’. They will accept nothing less.

      Expect moves to disenfranchise likely Labor voters so they can’t be beaten again.

    • The Scarlet Pimpernel says:

      06:23pm | 02/08/10

      I wasn’t going to answer this, because I think everyone should do their own research, but that snide comment from Gary prompts me to remind him that his hero Krudd apologised for at least one of those events above and the apology was reported by the Courier Mail. I will also add that the event he apologised for was initially flatly denied by Lachlan Harris, Krudd’s chief gofer.

    • Waz R says:

      01:19pm | 02/08/10

      The PM is appointed by the party that wins govt. When the party decided they no longer wanted Kevin as PM they offered his job to his 2IC which she took. This happens all the time in business. Kevin needs to get over it and get on with helping to get his party re-elected to govt.

      Reply

    • Strange things going on. says:

      02:32pm | 02/08/10

      For a while I thought Gillard’s deliberately slow speech reflected an overly authoritative, patronising manner - suggesting we are all slow learners or infants incapable of absorbing normal talk.

      On another comment column today, someone (obviously far better informed on this subject than myself) was asking if anyone else has noticed that Julia Gillard is using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques whenever interviewed.  (Slow talking and spatial anchor points being used to affect perception).  It was further commented that this method of public brainwashing is probably legal, but very unethical.

      Sometimes she also attempts to lull the audience by suddenly lowering her tone, addressing us in a confiding, mothering tone.  It sounds contrived.
      It’s weird, and I’m glad someone else has seemingly diagnosed it.

      Reply

    • Gary says:

      03:03pm | 02/08/10

      Strange things going on in your head? so now even her speech is “probably legal, but very unethical”?  This is because she knows if she doesn’t talk slowly and carefully, any verbal slip of the tongue will be pounced upon by right-wing attack dogs like yourself, even though Tony Abbott is doing exactly the same thing?
      They are all being careful what they say.

      Maybe you noticed in one tv news item, when asked a question by somebody, TA turned to his handler and asked if he was allowed to reply?  Maybe, like the rest of us, you have noticed a totally different TA to the one that abused that dying pensioner (Bernie somebody) during the last 2007 election campaign? Yet you have not twigged that TA has been muzzled to get him through these 5 weeks?
      Party leaders are all groomed on what to say and how to say it during election campaigns. What I am basically saying, you are an idiot.

    • Stewart Henstock says:

      03:21pm | 02/08/10

      Putting it bluntly Gillard sounds like a country hick when compared to the eloquence of Obama.
      Having her as our supreme leader would just confirm what the Americans really think :that we’re backward.

    • Richard says:

      04:02pm | 02/08/10

      Barack Obama’s speeches during the 2008 election campaign contained the hypnosis techniques of Dr. Milton Erickson, M.D. who developed a form of “conversational” hypnosis that could be hidden in seemingly normal speech and used on patients without their knowledge for therapy purposes.  Obama’s speeches (presumbaly intentionally) contained:
      -  Trance Inductions
      -  Hypnotic Anchoring
      -  Pacing and Leading
      -  Pacing, Distraction and Utilization
      -  Critical Factor Bypass
      -  Stacking Language Patterns
      -  Preprogrammed Response Adaptation
      -  Linking Statements/ Causality Bridges
      -  Secondary Hidden Meanings/Imbedded Suggestions
      -  Emotion Transfer
      -  Non-Dominant Hemisphere Programming

      I don’t think its unethical to use legitimate techniques of persuasion/communication to induce other people to support you. If Ms. Gillard is doing this as well, more power to her ~ nothing’s stopping Tony from doing the same…

    • Nicole says:

      06:46pm | 02/08/10

      @Strange things going on, listening to her voice makes my ears bleed, and watching her makes my eyes water. She’s a danger to my health.

    • DD Ball says:

      03:51pm | 02/08/10

      The tragedy of Rudd being booted as PM is over inflated. Jess must be mortified at how bad a PM her dad was. I am sure he is in a better place, now. I only wish he had been replaced by someone better.

      Reply

    • Angela says:

      10:38am | 03/08/10

      “Jess must be mortified at how bad a PM her dad was” - maybe, just maybe she loves her father enough to see him as her Dad, not the PM.  Some families are like that.  Try it sometime.

    • Tedd says:

      10:45am | 03/08/10

      Wonder if that - and his likely demise - contributed to her living out of the country in recent times?

    • acotrel says:

      10:34pm | 02/08/10

      Rudd misjudged the timing of the introduction of the tax on mining profits, and it really upset the backbenchers when the miners responded with a campaign supporting the coalition.  He’s now paying the price of that error of judgement!  What is interesting is the delight coalition supporters are taking in his embarrasment.  They’ve onviously forgotten or never believed Rudd saved Australia from a depression. - INGRATES!

      Reply

    • Elle says:

      01:09am | 03/08/10

      DD Ball, can i say to you at least Mr Rudds family are clean living human beings with morals , compared to the sly Gillard,who has had an affair with Bill Shorten,then broke up Mrs Crag Emison’s marriage, then spat him out while climbing the corporate ladder, & god knows how many other men was in the bed, perhaps this is why she walks lop-sided. This faceless woman is not fit to run a brothel let alone our country.

      Reply

    • Hardy28Madelyn says:

      07:27pm | 19/08/10

      I had a dream to make my commerce, but I didn’t earn enough amount of money to do this. Thank God my fellow told to take the mortgage loans. Therefore I used the small business loan and realized my dream.

      Reply
 
Comment

Facebook Recommendations

Read all about it

Punch live

Up to the minute Twitter chatter

Anthony Sharwood

antsharwood 26 May 12 09:27PM

Dementor doing a good job for sweden #sbseurovision

Anthony Sharwood

antsharwood 26 May 12 09:11PM

Ukraine song pinches chord progression from The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Fo real #sbseurovision

Anthony Sharwood

antsharwood 26 May 12 09:00PM

RT @GerardDaffy: @antsharwood all the talk over there is the grannies will win.they entered to get a church built,feelgood story

Anthony Sharwood

antsharwood 26 May 12 08:57PM

These peole insult my grandmothjer, who was born in minsk, belarus #sbseurovision

See all tweets

Recent posts

The latest and greatest

We don’t deserve this huge, exciting scientific project

by Claire Connelly

41

We don’t deserve this huge, exciting scientific project

I’d like to be able to say that sharing the world’s largest radio telescope with South Africa…

Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics

by Laurie Oakes

60

Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics

When North Queensland Liberal MP George Christensen got the idea of launching a new political organisation…

Please enter your password

by Lucy Kippist

39

Please enter your password

Help! I’ve succumbed to a crippling modern illness that can strike at any moment. Symptoms include:…

Nosebleed Section

choice ringside rantings

From: They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments

Michael S says:

"A teacher at Geelong Grammar had criticised her for using words that were too long, which had left her confused and had made her doubt her ability to write essays. She became ''quite distressed'' when her English marks began to fall." I can sympathise. My scholastic mentors conveyed to me a causal relationship… [read more]

From: Welfare for breeders is a bonus for everyone

Change Up! says:

I have no problem paying my taxes. As a single, childless person on a very decent income, I can afford it and not have my life severely altered. Plus I understand that my taxes paying for things like schools, childcare and infrastructure is ultimately a good thing. A better community is better for me… [read more]

Light weight

Gentle jabs to the ribs

They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments

They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments

A private school girl’s family is sueing her elite, extremely expensive private school for not… Read more

243 comments

Newsletter

Read all about it

Sign up to the free daily Punch newsletter

Subscribe to The Punch RSS feed