Kevin Rudd, the dud

Sydney

Kevin Rudd had spent so much time out of the limelight since his electoral thrashing two months ago that Australians were beginning to wonder what he was up to. The latest joke about our former two-time prime minister is that his only public appearance recently was at a suburban Brisbane retirement home, where he asked an elderly woman if she knew who he was. ‘No, but if you check at the front desk, I’m sure the nurses can help you,’ she replied.

But Rudd’s decision to retire from the Australian parliament after 15 years as an MP and two years and nine months as PM (December 2007-June 2010, June-September 2013) is no joke. It comes at a time when his Labor party is in the deepest political valley: it’s out of power in all the main states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia); and it’s battered and bruised federally after the mauling it received at the hands of the conservative Liberal leader Tony Abbott at the 7 September general election.