James Morrow: Kevin Rudd’s keen on a comeback — one sound bite at a time
THERE’S a rumour medicos will rename Relevance Deprivation Syndrome “Kevin Rudd Syndrome” — it makes sense the way he pops up to offer his view on everything.
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THERE’S a rumour going around that the Australian Medical Association is going to rename Relevance Deprivation Syndrome as “Kevin Rudd Syndrome”.
It would make sense, given the way the former PM has lately been popping up like a whack-a-mole to offer his prescription on this crisis or that — always with the stoic self-assurance that just knows that his particular brand of programmatic specificity is just what’s needed to put the world to rights.
As if a wormhole had opened to an alternate universe where he sits as Prime Minister-for-Life of the new Ruddtopia (national motto: “fair suck of the sauce bottle”), last week Rudd’s bespectacled melon flickered onto the nation’s TV screens for a slow-pitch interview with the ABC’s 7.30.
It’s safe to say no one lost any bets when he declared himself in favour of renewable energy and not the world’s biggest fan of Donald Trump.
This week what is looking scarify like Rudd’s comeback tour continued with an “exclusive” interview with the Fairfax press about the Arab-Israeli conflict, leveraging a bit of press in advance of Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrival in Australia this Wednesday.
Naturally, Rudd thinks it’s a terrible thing that the Palestinians don’t have a country of their own and thinks Australia should do something about it: “The time has come for Australia to join countries like Sweden and the Holy See in formally recognising the Palestinian state,” said Rudd.
Now Sweden and the Vatican are both lovely places, but taking foreign policy cues from them is a bit like moving in together on the second date because it works so well on Married at First Sight.
And oddly, the Palestinian Authority’s virulent anti-Semitism and Hamas’s sworn intention to exterminate the Jews never factor into the equation when Rudd frets about the lack of formal recognition for the West Bank and Gaza, but that’s another story.
Instead, it looks pretty clear that by hook or by crook Kevin Rudd is mounting a campaign to re-enter the national consciousness.
Why he is doing so is less obvious. Perhaps he is the first man in history to find living in splendour with a fat bank account in Manhattan a bore (though if anyone could do that, it would be Rudd).
Or maybe he’s trying to get back at Australia for nobbling his chances as United Nations Secretary General, which may go down in history as one of the great own goals. After all, how many people can even name the head of the UN?
(It’s Antonio Guterres now, for those playing along at home).
Either way, like the old saying “just because you are not interested in politics, that does not mean politics is not interested in you”, ignoring Kevin is not an option.
Resistance is futile.
Originally published as James Morrow: Kevin Rudd’s keen on a comeback — one sound bite at a time
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