mark latham on kevin rudd classic

AM - Thursday, 15 September , 2005 08:04:00
Reporter: Alexandra Kirk
TONY EASTLEY: Labor's Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd has been singled out by Mark Latham for special criticism.

Mr Rudd is labelled 'Heavy Kevvie' by Mister Latham and described as a terrible piece of work who is owned, quote, "lock stock and barrel" by the United States.

"Never listen to Rudd on foreign policy," Mr Latham says.

Well, Mr Rudd is in New York for the leaders summit there, and he's speaking here to AM's Alexandra Kirk.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Kevin Rudd, Mark Latham says you're a terrible piece of work, addicted to the media and leaking. He's dubbed you King of the Caveats, who never writes anything, a junior minister at best, that he'd make you Minister for the Pacific Islands.

How do you react?

KEVIN RUDD: Alex, I just think it's a pretty sad day for everybody, Mark included, when a former leader of our party behaves in this sort of way.

It's not just a spray against me, it's a spray against everybody - Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating, Kim Beazley, me, others. I mean, I think Mark's actually forgotten how much loyalty and support he got from people right across our show.

In that period when he was leader he got unprecedented levels of support and I think maybe it's the bitterness of having just lost the election campaign and then having to leave the leadership, but he seems to only have one script now, which is to lash out. I think it's all pretty sad.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: But are you hurt by his very cutting criticisms of you?

KEVIN RUDD: Look, Alex, I think it's no secret in Canberra that Mark's never seen me as his number one pin-up boy in Canberra - that's been the case for a long, long time. But you know something? The stuff that he went on about, about my mother's death is just beyond the pale.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Is true that you broke down after the election sobbing as you pleaded to be made Treasury spokesman, as Mark Latham contends?

KEVIN RUDD: I think Mark Latham has a big problem with the truth and that problem with the truth is evident in his recounting of that meeting as well.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Did you sob and plead?

KEVIN RUDD: Alex, I was very close to my Mum. She brought me up from the age of 11, she died the day before the election, she was buried a few days before.

I had a meeting with Latham, I reflected on that in the first minute or two of our conversation with Latham - no tears, no nothing - and then we got on with the business of discussing portfolio allocations where Mark had a very strong view.

As for his other assertion, which is that I'd threatened to resign from the front bench, look, that's just plain wrong. It's just not the truth.

And I'll just say that when I start to look at some of the other things which Mark has written, that this is a guy who seems to have a problem with the truth on a number of scores, including what he's had to say about Kim Beazley.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: How damaging is all this to the party in your view?

KEVIN RUDD: Oh, I think we can come through this. The party is bigger than any one individual.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: But your former leader is saying that the party is dysfunctional, it's irreparably broken, poisonous and opportunistic.

KEVIN RUDD: The party under Kim has actually been coming together pretty well in recent months.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: But what's changed? You have a new leader, but it doesn't appear that he's done anything to change or to reform the party?

KEVIN RUDD: Alex, it was just sad that we've now got a former leader who thinks that it's a smart thing to try and sink torpedos into the show. I don't think that's going to work, I think it's perhaps part of Mark's recovery therapy out there in Latham land, wherever that is.

But the bottom line is this, the party's bigger than that. The country expects our party to be a credible alternative Government, to take the argument up to the Government on things like Telstra and industrial relations, which we've been doing with great effect. Why Mark would want to do this at this time, just, I don't know.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Why do you think he would?

KEVIN RUDD: Also, he complains also about Kim's decency.

Can I just say this: Kim Beazley was defeated by Mark Latham for the leadership of the Party, Kim Beazley then went to the back bench. Mark Latham then came and pleaded with Kim during the course of 2004 to come back and help him on national security. He pleaded with him to become Shadow Minister for Defence, to build up Mark's national security credentials.

A lesser person would've told Mark to go jump in the lake. Kim didn't, he did the decent thing by the party. He came back and he worked his guts out for Mark.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: You weren't a friend or an ally of Mark Latham. How do you think he's friends will view his angry musings?

KEVIN RUDD: I'm not sure, Alex. I think people right across, those who are members of the party, who support the party and want to see us form the next Government of Australia would've expected better of a former leader of the Australian Labor Party.

I can't recall in our party's history when someone has turned on those who gave him support in the way in which Mark has done.

I mean, reflect for a moment just on this: in Mark's whole career, I don't think there is a single job that he held from the time he left university, which wasn't in some way connected with or supported by the Australian Labor Party.

I think the party has actually treated Mark pretty well through his life so far. It'd be good if some of that was returned by Mark to the party which has supported him for so long.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: And how do you think the party will treat him now?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, you know what everyone thinks in our show, whether they liked Mark personally or whether they didn't, everyone was really saddened by him being struck down with pancreatitis at the end of last year and the impact which that had on a young man's life.

I think the real wish across the show is that he just gets on with it. That is, he gets on with building a new life for himself and his family. That's what will be good for him, it'll also be good for the party and the country.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: What, you'd prefer he said nothing?

KEVIN RUDD: Look, our former leaders have always contributed to public debate and I look at Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and the others. They have contributed, sometimes with a bit of sharpness when it's been necessary and a bit of debate, but usually about policy and direction.

There's a bit of a difference between that, Alex, and a general spray on everybody and I just think Mark Latham needs to have a good, long, hard look at himself.

TONY EASTLEY: Labor's Foreign Affairs Spokesman Kevin Rudd, speaking there with AM's Alexandra Kirk