Kevin Rudd says he was ‘warned about Julia Gillard’ in his new book Not for the Faint-hearted: A personal reflection on life, politics and purpose
KEVIN Rudd has slammed Julia Gillard in his new book as he also tells why he felt empty after defeating John Howard in 2007.
Books & Magazines
Don't miss out on the headlines from Books & Magazines. Followed categories will be added to My News.
KEVIN Rudd is taking aim in his new memoir and everyone from Julia Gillard to Wayne Swan and John Howard are square in his sights.
In an excerpt of his new book Not for the Faint-hearted: A personal reflection on life, politics and purpose, obtained by The Weekend Australian, Mr Rudd says Ms Gillard has promised to give him two terms as leader before he planned to “ensure a smooth transition”, which would see her appointed as Australia’s first female prime minister.
“She said I should be given two terms as opposition leader,” Mr Rudd writes. “If I had failed to win by then, then she would reserve her rights. She then added a caveat that if I went backwards in the 2007 election, when measured against (Mark) Latham’s result in 2004, she would also have to give some thought as to her next move. Both propositions sounded reasonable to me. We shook hands on it.
“This agreement was one of the reasons I was taken by surprise during the events of June 2010, when Julia acted to ensure that not only would I not be given two terms as Labor leader, I would only be given one, and that would be as a Labor prime minister who had actually prevailed against the then invincible (John) Howard. Such is the brutal nature of Australian politics played at its hardest.”
He said former Labor leader Kim Beazley warned him that Ms Gillard was “toxic”, that she was loathed by his deputy Jenny Macklin and that even Lindsay Tanner and Alan Griffin, both members of Ms Gillard’s Victorian left faction, both advised him that she couldn’t be trusted.
Mr Rudd is also very critical of his one-time treasurer Wayne Swan. He says one of his biggest regrets was appointing Mr Swan as treasurer over the more able Lindsay Tanner.
He says Mr Swan was intellectually not up to the job, a poor communicator and his parliamentary performances were an embarrassment. But not appointing him would have risked destabilising the party.
Mr Rudd says that when he and Ms Gillard rolled Mr Beazley and Jenny Macklin for the Labor leadership he felt no joy in victory.
“It’s strange. I felt no elation. No sense of triumph. No personal vindication. It was exactly how I would feel a year later when I defeated Howard. I just felt a great weight resting on my shoulders, knowing in every fibre of my being there was an enormous job to be done. There could be no excuses. Fairly or unfairly, it was now all on me. Victory or defeat,” he said.
To read more go to The Weekend Australian
Originally published as Kevin Rudd says he was ‘warned about Julia Gillard’ in his new book Not for the Faint-hearted: A personal reflection on life, politics and purpose