The Project: Kevin Rudd agrees to Waleed Aly’s election tattoo gamble

A pre-election appearance by the former PM on The Project left the hosts lost for words as he accepted a high stakes wager.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took The Project panel off-guard tonight with an off the cuff moment while appearing as a guest host.

Speaking about Saturday’s Federal Election, Mr Rudd also shared some anecdotes from his time in office including why he infamously blew up while recording a message in Chinese.

But one particular moment from Mr Rudd’s guest episode had the panel in stitches. After discussing both parties’ approach to housing affordability, host Waleed Aly veered off to pitch a high-stakes wager to the former Labor leader.

“Will you get a Scott Morrison tattoo if he wins the election?” Aly asked.

Surprisingly, Mr Rudd agreed, with one small caveat.

“If it is removable, yes,” he said.

Mr Rudd went even further and said he’d allow Aly to pick where he got ScoMo’s mug tattooed on his body.

“Creepy …” Lisa Wilkinson said.

While the bookies have Labor as the standout favourite, Mr Rudd admitted there was “still 36 hours to go” on the campaign trail. If Scott Morrison pulls off an outside win, it looks like it’ll be a trip to ink city for the former Labor PM.

You sure about that one, Kev?

Waleed Aly was granted the privilege of picking where Kevin Rudd's ScoMo tattoo would go.

Rudd: ‘Mood for change’ in country

Mr Rudd said there was a “mood for change” across the nation after campaigning in 25 seats over the past month.

“It is both in WA and Adelaide, Melbourne, south east Queensland, perhaps far north Queensland as well as inner and western Sydney,” he said.

“I think people are saying, after nearly 10 years in office, they've had enough time, they do not have a plan for the future and on the questions of people under cost of living pressure, including housing affordability, they want to plan for the future.

“They want to see action on climate change.”

Mr Rudd also spoke on the now famous leaked video of him teeing off at an interpreter while he was Prime Minister.

“I was doing a prerecord of a Chinese New Year's greeting in Chinese. I have 15 minutes to do it in. I ask for a simple ‘hello, how are you. Have a great Chinese New Year’. In Chinese, I can do that,” he said.

Former PM @MrKRudd has been out and about and gives his analysis of who could win the election this Saturday. #TheProjectTVpic.twitter.com/04RUzVxITq

— The Project (@theprojecttv) May 19, 2022

“Instead, the interpreter from the embassy gave me this text (resembling) a Shakespearean sonnet. I am reading this on the autocue, going oh, no, really? I am struggling through and it goes for two pages.

“I get to the last paragraph and I stuff it up … and that is when I may have used an expletive.”

Mr Rudd said it was still a “deep mystery” over who leaked the video, but he guessed it may have happened after his ousting by Julia Gillard.

“They left the tape in my original Prime Ministerial office and then a couple of years later, when there were a few problems on our side of the shop, mysteriously this materialised,” he said.