Readings.com.au: Kevin Rudd

Rudd’s Way: November 2007 – June 2010

Based on an extensive series of detailed and off-the-record interviews, Nicholas Stuart — Kevin Rudd’s biographer and the author of an acclaimed study into the 2007 election — provides a critical examination of Labor in office and of the key events and crucial moments leading to Rudd’s downfall.

Rudd’s Way presents the first in-depth analysis of the way that Kevin Rudd’s government worked and why Labor eventually decided its leader had to be removed. Stuart argues that, more than under any previous government, the policies and direction of Australia over the period from November 2007 to June 2010 were set by just one man — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd — until he finally overreached himself and threatened to lead the party to electoral oblivion.

The background events and policy blunders that led to Rudd’s fall are described here in gripping detail, until we come to the final cataclysmic moment when the prime minister realised he’d been abandoned by the very team he’d led to government. It is the tragic story of a man who swam out of his depth; who wanted to achieve much, but was eventually unable to take action on climate change — the one thing he wanted to do more than anything else.

This is a book that no voter who wants to understand the challenges of the future can afford to be without.

Nicholas Stuart joined the ABC in 1985, worked in Radio News, ABC Radio Current Affairs, and ABC TV, and was the ABC’s Indochina correspondent before returning to Australia after a severe car accident. He is a regular columnist for the Canberra Times, and has written two critically acclaimed books analysing Labor and politics: Kevin Rudd: an unauthorised political biography and What Goes Up: behind the 2007 election (both published by Scribe). He is married to Catherine McGrath, the political editor of Australia Network. They live in Canberra and have three children: Anastasia, Eugenia, and Maximilian.

Rise Of The Ruddbot: Observations From The Gallery

Opposition leaders are like miniature piglets.

They look so sweet in the shop, don’t they? With their whiffling little pink noses and their eagerness to please; with their intelligent eyes and their loving natures and the sales assistant’s guarantee that they are fastidiously clean and, moreover, will fetch the paper every morning – what’s not to love?

It is only much later on, well after the election’s won and the warranty’s expired, that you wake up and realise, with a dull sense of unsurprise, that you’ve got a six-foot grunter digging up your backyard.

From Howard’s dramatic departure to Rudd’s relentless march to power, the last few years have been momentous ones in Australian politics. In Rise of the Ruddbot, Australia’s funniest, most incisive political commentator chronicles these strange and turbulent times. Featuring Tony “People Skills” Abbott, Julia “La Gillardine” Gillard, Malcolm Turnbull, Penny Wong, Godwin Grech, Barnaby Joyce and more, this is the perfect companion for an election year.

Quarterly Essay 38: Power Trip: The Political Journey Of Kevin Rudd

Power Trip shows the making of Kevin Rudd, prime minister. In Eumundi, where Rudd was born, David Marr investigates the formative tragedy of his life: the death of his father and what came after. He tracks the transformation of a dreamy kid into an implacably determined youth, already set on the prime ministership. He examines Rudd’s years as Wayne Goss’s right-hand man in Queensland, his relentless work in federal Opposition – from Sunrise to AWB – and finally his record as prime minister.

In Rudd’s Queensland years, Marr finds strange patterns that will recur: a tendency to chaos, a mania for control and a strange mix of heady ambition and retreat. All through this dazzling and revelatory essay, Marr seeks to know what drives an extraordinarily driven man. As Power Trip concludes, he enters into a conversation with the prime minister in which much becomes clear.

“Rudd had sold himself to the Australian people as a new kind of leader: a man of intellect and values out to reshape the future. If he isn’t that, people are asking, what is he? And who is he? … Millions of words have been written about him since he emerged from the Labor pack half a dozen years ago, but Rudd remains hidden in full view.” —David Marr, Power Trip

David Marr is the multi-award-winning author of Patrick White: a Life and The High Price of Heaven, and co-author with Marian Wilkinson of Dark Victory. In a career spanning over thirty years, he has written for the Bulletin and the Sydney Morning Herald, been editor of the National Times, a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC-TV’s Media Watch. In 2007 he authored the Quarterly Essay His Master’s Voice.

Kevin Rudd: The Biography (Updated Edition)

When Kevin Rudd became Leader of the Opposition in December 2006, dramatically ousting Kim Beazley, few Australians knew who he was. Eleven months later - and even more dramatically - he ousted John Howard to become Prime Minister of Australia, in the biggest electoral swing since 1975. Hawke, Keating, Howard - none of them attracted as many voters as quickly as Rudd.

But who is Kevin Rudd? We know the soundbites - a sometimes rough childhood in Queensland, a diplomatic career in Beiing, and extremely successful wife - but how well do we know the man who now runs the country? What did his time as a bureaucrat in the Queensland government reveal about him? How influential a role does his religion play in his life? Who are the people most significant to him? In short, what sort of Prime Minister will he be?

Robert Macklin is an author, journalist and former Prime Ministerial press secretary. He has had unrivalled access to Rudd and spent election evening with the Rudd family. Analysing the public and private record, Macklin reveals the man away from the spotlight.

This is a human story as much as a political one - sometimes funny, sometimes touching, always revealing - written with great pace and drama. Above all, it is a timely insight into the man who is now Prime Minister.

Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and former Playschool presenter, Rhys Muldoon and collaborated on this delighful children;s book about a day in the life of the Prime Minister's dog, Abby, and cat Jasper.

Mr Rudd told Sydney's Daily Telegraph that he "worked on the text with Rhys and we've both interviewed the cat and the dog. They have been very co-operative in their responses but, for most of the time, have gone off the record."

"It has not been the most demanding text I have worked on." he said.

Proceeds from the book will go to The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

Overland 195

Germaine Greer on Kevin Rudd, things fall apart in Afghanistan, writers against climate change, and much more.

CONTENTS
REGULARS Jeff Sparrow - Editorial
ESSAYS Germaine Greer – Waiting in vain John Martinkus – Things fall apart Clare Wright – A lover and a fighter Andrew Macrae – Alternative worlds Lihong Su – Wong Da-niang Myke Bartlett – The sounds of silence Hugo Race – Four scenes with Mario Merola Subhash Jaireth – Waiting for Stalin Laurie Hergenhan – Behind the scenes with Xavier Herbert Susan Lever & Ken Gelder – Empty celebration?
FOCUS: WRITERS AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE David Spratt – Unstoppable fury Sharon Beder - Industry conjurers Tim Lambert - An inconvenient blog
FICTION Miranda Siemienowicz – Penthouse Kristel Thornell - Cabin fever Laurie Clancy - Eleven things I know about my brother
ONLINE FICTION SUPPLEMENT Andrew Fuhrmann – Lucent fruit [PDF version]
REVIEWS Tali Lavi – Journals Heather Taylor Johnson – Poetry
JUDITH WRIGHT POETRY PRIZE Sarah-Jane Norman – Eurycleia (iv) Astrid Lorange – you dropped the tea tray
POETRY Pam Brown – No worries Nathan Curnow – Miasmas - Fumigation Thomas Lee – Plateau Graham Rowlands – Reading this, reading that Peter O’Mara - the awful rowing towards God Briohny Doyle - Without events//

To The Bitter End: The Dramatic Story Of The Fall Of John Howard And The Rise Of Kevin Rudd

On 24 November 2007 Australia resoundingly changed government. If you think you know what really happened during that tumultuous year behind the closed doors of the Liberal Party, in the back rooms of the ACTU and deep in the campaign war room of the Labor Party, think again.

2007 was a year to remember in Australian politics. It saw the dramatic fall of John Howard and the unexpected rise of Kevin Rudd. It saw the Liberal Party buckle under the inertia of incumbency and the Labor Party find new discipline and energy. It also saw the union movement at the centre of the most effective and powerful political campaign in years.

This is the story of that year. It is about faltering ambition, driving ego, confidences lost and gained. It is about friends and enemies, truth and deception, humiliation and triumph.

With unprecedented access to the key players and countless hours of confidential interviews Peter Hartcher's To the Bitter End is a penetrating, riveting and above all revealing exploration of a year when the political stakes had never been higher.

Kevin Rudd: An Unauthorized Political Biography

Kevin Rudd emerged after a period of prolonged instability and internal strife within the federal ALP to establish himself as a popular leader who could unify his party and mount a real challenge to John Howard. The early reaction to his leadership, from both voters and his political adversaries, suggests that he is widely regarded as Labor’s best hope in a decade of ending the Howard ascendancy.

Kevin Rudd: an unauthorised political biography explores the events that have made this ambitious, self-reliant man, and the influences that have shaped his vision for the future of Australia. It asks key questions: can Rudd inspire self-belief in Labor and persuade the electorate that, this time, they can indeed be trusted? What would a Labor government under an intelligent conservative leader look like or stand for?

Based on extensive interviews with the main participants Canberra journalist Nicholas Stuart traces Rudd’s life from his childhood on a Queensland dairy farm and the family’s struggle after the tragic death of his father to the present. He examines in detail Rudd’s university years, his diplomatic service in Copenhagen and Beijing, his political apprenticeship as Wayne Goss’s chief of staff and later head of the Cabinet Office, his entry into federal politics and witnessing of the disintegration of successive Labor leaders, his rapprochement with Julia Gillard, and his ultimate emergence as Labor leader.

Kevin Rudd: a political biography is a comprehensive examination of the making of this key player in Australian political life. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of Australia.

Kevin Rudd: The Biography

When Kevin Rudd became Labor leader in December 2006, many Australians had never heard of him. A few months later, his presence has galvanized the Labor party into an effective opposition, and he appears on the on the brink of becoming the leader of this country. But who is Kevin Rudd? What is his experience, both political and personal? What sort of man is he? What role does his religion play in his life? How has his wife's multimillion-dollar business influenced him? In short, what sort of Prime Minister might he make?

In this biography of Rudd, author, journalist and former Prime Ministerial press secretary Robert Macklin analyses the public and private record, including Rudd's time as a diplomat in China and his role in Wayne Goss's Queensland Government. Macklin has conducted exclusive interviews with Rudd's former employers and colleagues to reveal the man away from the spotlight. And he has had full access to the Rudd family, and to Rudd himself, who talks about the enduring legacy of his childhood, through the tragedy of his early teens to the moment when he decided 'to get determined'.

This is a human story as much as a political one - sometimes funny, sometimes touching - written with great pace and drama. It is a timely book full of insights into the man who would be Prime Minister.

Robert Macklin was born in Brisbane and after a stint jackarooing in Western Queensland began his journalistic career at the Courier-Mail. He worked in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery for The Age and in 1967 joined Sir John McEwen as Press Secretary. Shortly afterward Prime Minister Harold Holt drowned and McEwen became Prime Minister. Macklin later joined The Canberra Times where he was associate editor until 2002.