The loneliest man in the Labor Party never stops talking to people.
You would be financially wrecked if you had the telephone bill of Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd who is dialing around the international dateline.
He listed his calls yesterday - over the past few days he has spoken to the UN Secretary General, the US Secretary of State, the US Deputy Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, and the heads of the IMF and the World Bank.
In addition, Mr Rudd has reached out to others of his rank. He has contacted the foreign ministers of the EU, UK, Germany, Turkey, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil and Egypt.
It’s all about getting together assistance for the Egyptians: ``And that’s why we are running up the telephone bill quite a lot in recent times.’‘
But why telephone when you can drop in? This week he will leave for visits to Egypt and Tunisia.
The hardest working man in the foreign affairs biz has been flat out keeping an eye on the upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa, and now the dreadful disaster in New Zealand.
And among the many he has been speaking to is Prime Minister Julia Gillard. They spent some time together Monday morning and spoke twice during Question Time yesterday.
However, by some informed estimates there are many more people in the Labor Party talking about Kevin Rudd than are speaking to him.
The former party leader appears a solitary figure at Government gatherings but always produces comments in his wake. The speculation around the confidential Labor Report on the last election has ensured that.
The un-published report is said to point to leaks against Julia Gillard during the campaign, leaks said to have come from pro-Rudd sources, as significant destabilising factors which might have cost victory.
Mr Rudd has consistently denied he leaked or authorised leaks.
But then there was the agonising meeting between him and Gillard in Brisbane which was arranged to settle the intense hostility between them, at least for the duration of the campaign. Instead, he looked like a man who planed to sue for breach of promise.
Mr Rudd has also been travelling through Australia and finding he is something of a celebrity. People in Perth and Adelaide have been stopping him for autographs and photos, particularly young people.
He has bought a $2 million house in Canberra to make clear he is not going away, and he is using the apparent endorsement of Gen Y to justify that decision to stick around.
Also driving him is the belief, probably an accurate one, that he would have won the election scheduled for late last year had he not been knocked off by Julia Gillard in June.
And he is capable of savage words about Gillard if prompted—often when he isn’t. He does not criticise her performance as PM. It’s much more personal and bitter.
And Mr Rudd doesn’t limit himself to one person. He has special views about the right-wing Shoppies, the union which backed Ms Gillard to replace him. He points out that the union’s actively Christian leadership worked to get an atheist for Prime Minister.
There also is a Rudd view of the AWU, the other trade union involved in destabilising him that night in Parliament House.
Yesterday, at the National Press Club, Mr Rudd backed Ms Gillard’s rebuke to the union for heavy-handed attacks on Trade Minister Craig Emerson.
He referred to the AWU leaders involved as ``said factional thugs’‘.
``On the broader question of…factional leaders and their role within the Australian Labor Party: We are at our best when they are at their least. And that is an important principle,’’ he said.
``What I want to see is a party where individual members and individual parliamentary members can say whatever they want, wherever they want, free of any fear of intimidation of factional leaders.’‘
Kevin Rudd doesn’t have any fear of factions. They have done their worst to him and now its his turn.
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