Kevni’s Brush with Infamy
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd once enjoyed an extremely positive relationship with the media.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd once enjoyed an extremely positive relationship with the media.
That relationship ran from the time Rudd became Labor’s opposition leader in 2006 and through the first few years of his national leadership.
Then Rudd was dropped by his own party before he’d even completed one term in office.
Obviously, the media covered the entire startling episode in detail. And the media subsequently covered in detail Rudd’s return to power in 2013.
But the coverage of that year’s election was very different in tone to the coverage in 2007. This was unavoidable.
Like the Labor Party itself, Australia had learned a great deal about Kevin Rudd during the intervening time.
Yet Rudd has behaved since he lost that election as though he was owed admiring and supportive treatment.
Lately he’s even demanding a media royal commission.
Perhaps a recent event will cure Rudd of his desire to curb or otherwise control the press.
For it turns out the media played a very helpful role in alerting the ex-PM to a potentially grave scandal in his midst.
It has emerged that Rudd’s New York peace think-tank, the International Peace Institute, across several years received $US650,000 in donations from child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
This was obviously not the fault of either Rudd or his institute. Yet any connection to Epstein could potentially be made to look very bad indeed.
Timely notification from the press, however, enabled Rudd to take swift corrective action.
“I first learned of contributions from Epstein’s foundations to the IPI in November 2019 through reporting by the Norwegian press,” Rudd said.
“Subsequent searches by IPI staff, made at the request of the board, have identified donations totalling $650,000 that were received between October 2011 and May 2019.
“The source of these donations had not previously been disclosed to the board, nor to me as chair.”
As the Daily Telegraph reports, Rudd has now convened a special board meeting of his institute, which works with the United Nations, to provide a financial amount equivalent to Epstein’s donation to a fund for sex assault victims.
The media did its job. We’re always happy to help, Kevin.
(This morning’s Daily Telegraph editorial.)