Bennelong despatch: yum cha and tears with Kevin Rudd
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It was the mention of Tony Abbott that brought colour back to the face of Kevin Rudd. “On the economy, Abbott is just not up the job. On broadband, we are equipping the economy for the future, and they want to rip it out of the ground. Tony Abbott has a Neanderthal approach to broadband, somewhere between the paleozoic and the mesozoic,” he said. It is “fundamental” to an economy like this that the National Broadband Network be built, he told me, thumping his index finger into his palm. Earlier, it had been a pale and wan KRudd who had alighted from the back of the Comcar outside Eastwood Public School at about 10am on Saturday. Losing the job of a lifetime is one thing, but following it up with an emergency gallbladder operation is bad luck, and he looked like he had been through the wringer. But talking about the election seemed to restore his energy. “The local people remember the GFC and know that if the government had not put in a stimulus package, an extra 500,000 people would be out of work. And when they walk into Eastwood Public, they look at the new building under construction and think of the BER. And there’s an education legacy in these schools.” The former PM had come to Bennelong to do some campaigning for local member Maxine McKew, including some fence-mending with the local Asian communities. He started at the Feng Hua language school, where the local children come to learn Mandarin on Saturday mornings. Rudd’s presence was important, as many of the local Chinese and Koreans residents were very upset when he lost the top job. They’d felt a strong link with the Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, who had spoken so often of the need for a closer engagement with Asia. Although Rudd didn’t visit Bennelong in the last campaign, his daughter Jessica and Chinese-born son-in-law Albert Tse did pay two visits, which had been widely reported in the local Chinese and Korean newspapers. But that wasn’t the only factor. Local leaders told me they felt that the manner of his removal was disrespectful to the office of PM. Many considered it inconceivable that an elected leader could lose his or her job in that way, and their faith in the parliamentary system had been shaken. For an electorate like Bennelong, this is not a fringe issue. According to the 2006 Census, 59% of the residents were born overseas or have parents who were born overseas, compared to the national average of 40%. The largest ethnic communities are Chinese and Korean, with Indians also forming a large group. Maxine McKew holds the seat by a slender 1.4%. Accompanied by three security men, a minder and a press secretary, he stopped and chatted, in Mandarin, to many of the local families – evidently he told them he had been a friend of hers for many years, and that she was doing a very good job for the electorate. Finally, when all the photos had been taken, the whole group moved down Eastwood Mall to King’s Seafood Restaurant and settled down for a lunch of yum cha. As I observed the former PM trying to eat his lunch while being interrupted every twenty seconds, I thought about the words of one of the Eastwood locals. This is not a federal election, he’d said, but is in fact 150 different simultaneous by-elections. Because there are few big, philosophical issues, almost every electorate seems to fighting a different campaign, with unique rules. My biggest rule should be — stay away from events featuring singing littlies. There comes a moment in every election campaign when you are so emotionally burnt-out that a childrens’ choir can literally reduce you to tears. Last time it was the Marist Brothers choir belting out “Jerusalem”, but this time it was the Feng Hua youngsters singing “Edelweiss” that did it. By the time they got to “Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow, bloom and grow forEVer”, my eyes had welled up and, glancing over at Rudd, saw that he was the same. But as they switched to Mandarin for the last verse, he rallied and joined in. Childrens’ choirs, The Sound of Music, tears. This must mean it’s the final week. |
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11 Comments
It’s very clear the ugly little wankers who decided to rid us of the PM most of us rather liked did so because we all rather liked him and they were so dumb they didn’t like the vision thing that he has.
I bet his interview with Rhani Sadler last night will enormously boost organ donation in this country and to my knowledge he is the first to ever champion such things.
All the really good things that have happened in this country in the last three years were driven by Rudd, we can clearly see the vision thing is not for Gillard.
Ah Marilyn your hate and spiteful comments regarding the PM are evident in nearly every contrubution you make. Kevin Rudd has done the mature adult think and decided to get on with life, without the personal attacks and grudges.
You should try it, just may make your sad life a little brighter.
What a fascinating article from the front lines! Never thought of the presumably Confucian respect for authority being a factor in attitudes to Rudd’s removal in Asian communities. And the comment about 150 simultaneous by-elections. Good on Rudd for continuing to fight the good fight after what he’s been through.
That respect for a leader I assume comes from upbringing rather than experience . We have all seen the brawls in Taiwan parliament and then there is the one party rule in China where a leader can be sent to Coventry and eventually get back in favour , gang of four and Chou En Lai . Think thats correct spelling but not sure. Whatever the true situation I imagine Rudd goes over well because they see a person who took the effort to earn a foreign language which immigrants would be aware is no easy task.
They’re children’s choirs, Margot, not childrens’ choirs. (Twice, so it wasn’t a typo.) A childrens’ choir is a choir of childrens.
Kim, you are absolutely right! I’m hanging my head in shame. Thanks for pointing it out.
Australians have shown over history a preference for a balance of powers…Feds v. States, Reps v. Senate, PM v. Cabinet, Church v. State…it was this unwritten historic-cultural rule which Rudd broke, through an autocratic style and the concentration of power in his office and the PM’s Department.
The ALP didn’t like it, the Caucus didn’t like it, ministers didn’t like it, the media continually pointed to it in their relentless questioning of Rudd.
Rudd had not developed a support base in the Party, so when low primary voting poll figures were added to an intractable stand-off with the mining industry and its media supporters, the ALP Caucus acted. Rudd found he had 8 (eight!) votes in a 100-plus Caucus, and resigned.
The commentary that Gillard ‘stabbed him in the back’ is a nonsense. She maintained a loyal support until the inevitable end, then looked him fair in the eye then stabbed him in the front.
The ALP Caucus did the Australian people a service…they allowed a return to a Government intent on an administration embracing a balance of powers.
@Trevor Harrison: he offered her a deal which would have assured his job until after the election (and, had she taken it, not turned the Australian Parliament into a clown academy.) Pushed by the right, and MINING INTERESTS (FFS!) she prevaricated for a couple of hours (making Rudd think the threat would come from the right) and then got him. It was in the front, yes. But it was not noble.
I was speaking to some South Americans (Colombians, actually) who were absolutely appalled at what happened to K. Rudd. I’m not saying that they were a represnentative sample, but it was interesting remembering the conversation (held on the night of the day after the night) and comparing it to the attitude expressed in the chinese community above.
I wonder how this makes us look overseas?
@ SICKOFITALL - I agree with your comments in paragraph one. There was nothing noble about Julia’s behaviour re Kevin Rudd. I have just returned from a holiday on the Gold Coast, and just listening to comments made by people up there, it seems to have affected their psyche - almost an air of disbelief that something like this could happen in Oz. I think this incident will have a lasting effect on many people.
Interesting report, Margot.
@SICKOFITALL: No one’s saying this was an ideal change…it rarely is, on either side of politics. But I believe history will show that Rudd’s closed-shop autocratic approach to administration was the key to his rejection by the Caucus. Ministers and backbenchers bit their collective tongue whilst he retained popular support. But once that disappeared (down to polled 35% primary vote…a losing position), he lost the support of over 90% of his colleagues. The Caucus wanted a better, more balanced approach to administration, one that allowed decisions to be debated and discussed, not rammed through without consultation. Most Australians would expect this of their Government, that policies and decisions are discussed across Cabinet and Caucus, not handed down from on high.
Maxine who??? Oh, the one who did just one good thing for the country, forcing out the once great but in his dotage all too stubborn, Howard! Has she actually been in Parliament at all?? Nothing has been heard of her at all.