Australians should deeply question the PM’s appointment of Rudd to such a critically-important diplomatic role, given he gave this country some of the most useless and wasteful government programs we have ever seen.
Just when we thought all was going quiet on the political front in the lead-up to Christmas, Anthony Albanese announces Kevin Rudd as the next Ambassador to the US.
During the press conference this announcement was wedged between Albanese discussing Senator Wong’s historic visit to Beijing and the appointment of Heather Ridout AO as the Consul General in New York.
I presume Albanese was hoping no one would notice he was appointing one of his great political allies to a plum job in the US particularly after a week of the Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus, waxing lyrical about Coalition cronyism and jobs for the boys.
Except we all noticed.
And it’s a choice which should be strongly questioned.
In government, Rudd gifted the Australian people with some of the most useless and wasteful government programs this country had ever seen: the school laptop program, school halls and pink batts.
And once the Australian people discovered that this self-professed economic centrist was anything but, his popularity nosedived, and he was eventually deposed as Prime Minister by his own side.
It’s hard to forget what his own colleagues had to say about him – comments that were broadly reported at the time: he was a narcissist, a micro-manager, erratic, an impulsive control freak and someone who treated people poorly and even contemptuously.
There was also the strip club incident or the time he claimed the Chinese were trying to “rat-f*ck” Australia.
After returning the favour and knifing Gillard, he was unceremoniously dumped by the Australian people at the 2013 election.
Since departing politics, Kevin Rudd has been a regular on the international circuit, he earned a PhD from Oxford University and become totally obsessed by alleged and apparent control by News Corp of the Australian political landscape.
He wanted a Royal Commission into this alleged political conspiracy but even his own party told him to get over it.
Ironically, Australia is basically wall-to-wall Labor, so query his analysis and that he conveniently omits the fact that the News Corp press backed him in for PM in 2007.
A searing and concurrently divine account written by David Penberthy, former editor of the Daily Telegraph, in late-2020, drew the curtains on the ever selfish and transactional Kevin Rudd.
This did not dull Rudd’s enthusiasm for bashing the News Corp media.
In April 2022, he complained to the Press Council about an article in the Australian over reports that Rudd would become the Ambassador to the US.
No doubt an apology will be forthcoming.
So, I ask this question: is this failed and divisive former PM someone we are going to inflict on our greatest security and trading partner?
Compare this to the recent appointment of Stephen Smith, former defence minister, as the Next High Commissioner to the UK.
There has been no complaint about Smith’s suitability for the position. Why? Because his is sensible, competent, a team player, and broadly respected.
During today’s press conference, Albanese was totally correct in saying that Rudd’s experience is “unmatched”.
Though you would struggle to find many people who would consider that a compliment.
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