Who’s to blame for Rudd’s downfall? A Murdoch, Fairfax, Labor, Jewish conspiracy

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launches his second political memoir, The PM Years, at Parliament House in Canberra. Photo: Kym Smith

Rudd attacks. ABC’s 7.30, Monday:

Leigh Sales: You’ve taken 600 pages … to lay out your record of achievement, if it’s as strong as you say, why are your colleagues so eager to knife you?

Rudd: … Perfectly Shakespearean, they wanted my job … (or) elevation …

Rudd attacks. Malcolm Farr, news.com.au, yesterday:

The new Rudd book doesn’t shrink from reviving ancient animosities … Gillard didn’t like Senator Penny Wong … senators John Faulkner and Robert Ray “despised” … Stephen Conroy. Former foreign minister Stephen Smith opposed former Labor leader Kim Beazley’s posting … to Washington … (But) Rudd … was not swayed by personal antagonism: “I knew for a fact Kim and his wife Suzie hated me with a liquid passion … But I felt no malice towards them at all.” Well, not until 2010 … “I remember Therese saying just before the (NYE) 2009 party how unusual it was that both Julia and Wayne Swan had suddenly cancelled just before the event.”

Rudd attacks. Latika Bourke, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday:

Rudd (attacked) … Labor frontbenchers Tony Burke and Jason Clare … “In the political treachery stakes, Jason Clare doesn’t just have a first-class honours degree; he has a PhD.” … Burke and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten felt their … ministerial appointments … were beneath them.

Colleagues strike back. Matthew Killoran, Courier Mail, yesterday:

Rudd has been criticised (by former colleagues) for … claims he made against (them) …

Guess who he blames? Kevin Rudd tweets, yesterday:

How unusual for Murdoch’s Courier- Mail to go on the attack against my new book. I presume this has nothing to do with my call for a #MurdochRoyalCommission into Murdochs abuse of media power … both for ideological and commercial reasons.

Who else? Peter Hartcher, The Sydney Morning Herald, yesterday:

Every prime minister since John Howard has left office blaming the media at least partly for their downfall … But … how many of them … acknowledged the media for playing a part in their rise? . … Kevin Rudd … devotes attention to one particular … news article (written by me) that Gillard and her henchmen seized upon as the trigger for the coup … Rudd calls my article … “spectacularly damaging” and “spectacularly inaccurate” … it suits (Rudd) to claim that my piece was part of the conspiracy against him. It wasn’t.

And guess who else? Latika Bourke, Sydney Morning Herald, October 19:

“I knew for a fact that Julia had been cultivating the Israeli lobby in Australia,” (Rudd said) … a member of the lobby, Mark Leibler … said “ ‘Julia is looking very good in the public eye these days … She’s performing very strongly. She’s a great friend of Israel. But you shouldn’t be anxious about her, should you, Prime Minister?’ ” That … (was) on June 3. Three weeks later, Ms Gillard toppled Mr Rudd … Mr Leibler emphatically rejected Mr Rudd’s claims … “I am shocked and disappointed that completely false accounts … are now being used to prop up far-fetched conspiracy theories by a former prime minister,” he said.

Who’s to blame for the coup against Abbott? ABC’s 7.30, Monday:

Sales: Malcolm Turnbull called both you and Tony Abbott miserable, miserable ghosts hanging around. What do you say to that?

Rudd: … I actually left politics five years ago … Another bloke that didn’t, he’s been organising coup and counter-coup ever since.