Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Stephen Rice
What on earth is going on with Kevin Rudd?
Just weeks ago he was sitting pretty in the Lodge — he'd seen off the global economic crisis and the next election was in the bag.
Then the wheels fell off. After a series of spectacular blunders and back flips, voters turned on him with a vengeance. And so have some in his party.
There are even rumblings that he might be rolled as leader.
It seems our P.M. has lost his mojo. But try telling him that.
Full transcript:
STORY -
KEVIN RUDD: I have always failed at this.
TARA BROWN: On a cold night in Canberra this week, the PM is running late as always - even with the help of his daughter, Jess. JESS RUDD: Does that look right?
TARA BROWN: It's the Press Gallery Ball and the PM is putting on a brave face for what he knows could be a chilly reception.
TARA BROWN: Now, did you iron that shirt?
KEVIN RUDD: Ah, no.
TARA BROWN: Did anyone? JESS RUDD: That is way harsh!
KEVIN RUDD: That's very harsh!
TARA BROWN: You'll wear a coat though, won't you? JESS RUDD: Oh, you are so mean!
KEVIN RUDD: I said you looked really nice!
TARA BROWN: It's a measure of the man he can still laugh. With an unprecedented collapse in support from both the public and within his own party, his job could well be on the line. And it's not hard to see why.
TARA BROWN: Fuel watch - gone. Grocery choice - gone. Home insulation - gone. Health reform - watered down and unresolved. Education revolution - an expensive mess. Emissions trading scheme - gone for now. Why wouldn't the electorate think you're failing them?
KEVIN RUDD: Well, I think the first thing to say is that our number one job these last couple of years is to keep the economy going. Sure, in a number of other areas, we've run into some difficulties, and things haven't gone according to plan. I fully accept that. But you learn from your mistakes. It's important to do that.
TARA BROWN: But with respect, Prime Minister, you're not on work experience, you're in the job now. I mean, how many mistakes do you need to make?
KEVIN RUDD: Well, what is basic to the entire country having a secure future? And the answer to that is to make sure the economy is functioning well, and obviously some things went off-track. I accept that. I admit that. The key to it is to learn from it.
TARA BROWN: But do you accept that some of the things that have gone off-track are clearly unacceptable to the electorate because, right now, you're on the nose. I mean, people aren't saluting you for keeping the economy running well.
KEVIN RUDD: Tara, people make a judgement about me and the Government when the election comes -
TARA BROWN: But they're making it...
KEVIN RUDD: ..based on a whole series of judgements.
TARA BROWN: But they're making a judgement now. I mean, you're, you're...
KEVIN RUDD: Well, they've made judgements of -
TARA BROWN: ..approval rating is now 36%.
KEVIN RUDD: They've, they've made, they've made judgements over a long period of time - sometimes higher and sometimes lower, that's true.
TARA BROWN: But within the Labor Party at the moment it seems like the greatest challenge is Kevin Rudd. Are you a liability as we sit here today?
KEVIN RUDD: We're determined to get on with this business. But, you know something? There's a whole bunch of people who are equally determined that nothing happens, and they're throwing a huge amount at the Government and, of course, me as its leader, right now.
TARA BROWN: Those were the days. The honeymoon for Kevin '07 lasted well into '08 and even '09. He steered us through the global financial crisis - Australia was one of the few lucky countries to survive pretty much unscathed. Then came disasters like the deadly home insulation fires. And the rorting of the so-called "Building the Education Revolution". But it was the total back down on the emissions trading scheme - one of Rudd's most cherished and fundamental commitments - that has seen his approval ratings crash.
TARA BROWN: We look at Kevin Rudd in 2007 and he was cult-like. What's gone wrong?
GRAHAM RICHARDSON: A lot obviously 'cause I think in 2007 This guy was the best campaigner I had ever seen, better than Hawke. He was superb. Every single thing he did in 2007 was spot-on. But that magic just isn't there today and we're all looking for it to come back.
TARA BROWN: Unless it does, long-time Labor Party powerbroker Graham Richardson reckons Rudd is finished. And it comes down to one issue - the 40% super profits tax the Government is trying to impose on the mining industry.
GRAHAM RICHARDSON: What he's got to do is sit down, have a good look at himself, have a good look at the tax, and fix it in the next week. He's just got to get rid of it.
TARA BROWN: Will he?
GRAHAM RICHARDSON: Very good question, but my sense is 'yes'. I still have faith and I think he'll settle it, and settle it relatively quickly, and then move on.
TARA BROWN: It was supposed to be the tax reform that would win him easy votes - robbing from the rich mining industry to pay the poor - more for super, roads and other tax cuts. Only problem is the electorate isn't buying it.
TARA BROWN: You'd expect the electorate to embrace that, to say 'thank you' and, yet, they're not. Why is that?
KEVIN RUDD: Well, Tara, there's a huge fear campaign under way at the moment. It's a tough debate, they're throwing everything at it, Good luck to them, but we're determined to bring about decent and fundamental reform.
TARA BROWN: And Rudd is digging in. Despite feverish speculation his frontbench plans to roll him as early as next week if he doesn't solve the crisis immediately, he's prepared to slog it out for months.
TARA BROWN: Will you compromise?
KEVIN RUDD: We've said from day one, and you know this, Tara, that we will consult and negotiate on detail, on implementation and transitional arrangements.
TARA BROWN: So, negotiation, consultation. Does compromise come into it?
KEVIN RUDD: Well, as I've -
TARA BROWN: You don't like the word 'compromise', do you?
KEVIN RUDD: Well, can I just say, it's just what we have been very plain about from day one. We've said we've got the rate of this tax about right. We've said that on detail, on implementation, on transitional arrangements that we'll consult and we'll negotiate.
TARA BROWN: But if makes any compromise on this mining tax doesn't he then just look like the PM who cuts and runs, like he did with the ETS?
GRAHAM RICHARDSON: You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, but I'd much rather the argument be "Oh, gee, he flip-flopped on this". I'd much rather that than to just keep going and say "I'm going to stick to my guns, doesn't matter what anyone thinks." It does matter what the electorate thinks. I don't think Labor's winning the argument. I think they're losing the argument and I think that'll get worse day after day.
TARA BROWN: Here, in the corridors of power at Parliament House, much of the talk is about Rudd's one-man band style of running the country, not seeking the advice of old hands in the party, not listening to his own Cabinet - criticism that seems to wash over him.
TARA BROWN: Yeah, 'cause, you know you're critics say that you're in love with power.
KEVIN RUDD: Who are they? Who are they?
TARA BROWN: Oh, there are so many of them!
KEVIN RUDD: I've got critics?
TARA BROWN: That you're in love with power, maybe not so much in love with the ALP.
KEVIN RUDD: Oh, look, folk will be critical all the time.
GRAHAM RICHARDSON: The problem with the perception is this is a man who acts on his own, that he regards himself as being the font of all wisdom, and that if you don't follow his dictums, then you're in all sorts of strife.
TARA BROWN: This Government is one of leaving many ministers disgruntled, shut out and angry.
TARA BROWN: Is it a pattern of this Government, under your leadership, not to include the hard heads of the Labor Party, the experienced people in the decision-making process?
KEVIN RUDD: On the big things that are out there and have been for the last two years, my ministers - and I'm proud of each and every one of them - have done a first-class job using the processes of our Cabinet and our Government.
TARA BROWN: And, yet, the ETS, which you'd have to admit is a pretty big thing, Environment Minister Peter Garret reads about it being shelved on the front page of the newspaper. I mean, how humiliated and angry must he have felt at that time?
KEVIN RUDD: As you know, we don't go to the individual detail of individual meetings, we just don't do that.
TARA BROWN: Is it Kevin Rudd, and Kevin Rudd only? You've been described as a control freak, somebody who cannot cop criticism from within his party, somebody who doesn't like debate and doesn't like to hear what he needs to hear. Is that you?
KEVIN RUDD: We have what I can describe as a very robust method of decision-making in our Government. That's what Cabinet government's about. That's what our political party's about. We nut things through. We talk them through.
TARA BROWN: That may or may not be true, but here's the one person guaranteed to have the PM's ear.
TARA BROWN: Therese, at a time like this when the pressure does seem on, what's it like to be the PM's wife?
THERESE REIN: Oh, it's always a joy!
TARA BROWN: Always?
THERESE REIN: It's always a joy, yeah.
TARA BROWN: It's a joy they've shared for more than three decades. Therese Rein knows Kevin Rudd like no other - what's shaped him as a man, even what's shaped his notorious bad language.
TARA BROWN: Now, this goes to the very heart of running a country, but does the PM swear like a trooper at home?
THERESE REIN: Well, I think that -
KEVIN RUDD: Quiet, or I wash your mouth!
THERESE REIN: I have never-ever seen Kevin swear at anybody, and he has never sworn at anybody in our family, ever, ever. But sometimes, you know, a strong word is a way of letting off steam. I'm okay with that.
TARA BROWN: Because you'd be aware, both of you obviously, of the talk that the swearing is put on a bit, that it's about trying to make you look more knock-about than perhaps you naturally are.
THERESE REIN: See, Kevin grew up in country Queensland...
KEVIN RUDD: ..where they never swore,
THERESE REIN: They never swore.
TARA BROWN: Yeah, but the imputation is that you're pretending to be something you're not.
THERESE REIN: Okay. What, let me, let me say something - I see Kevin being absolutely true to who he is and what he believes. Someone said, "Oh, what's at the heart of Kevin Rudd, what drives Kevin Rudd is anger." Well, I've known him for nearly 35 years and I can tell you that what drives Kevin Rudd is compassion, that he cares deeply about people and that's what motivates - I'm going to get emotional - that's what motivates him and that's what he cares about. He cares about the future of the country, he cares about people who are doing it tough, and that's what drives him, and that's who he is.
TARA BROWN: But while Therese may know what Kevin Rudd stands for, it seems much of the electorate doesn't.
KEVIN RUDD: This is where I sit and work. This is the study here at the Lodge.
TARA BROWN: Like so many prime ministers before him, Kevin Rudd must now find a way to regain the public's lost confidence.
TARA BROWN: Would you accept your backflip on the ETS means people no longer believe you stand for anything?
KEVIN RUDD: My views on climate change have not changed one bit. You mentioned emissions trading, Let's just go to the core of this, Tara. Three times we put an emissions trading bill to the Australian Parliament and three times the Liberal Party rejected it.
TARA BROWN: How do you react then when you hear lf described as a "gutless wonder" because of your backflip?
KEVIN RUDD: How can you, Tara, as a reasonable person say that THAT is my fault if it's an action by the Liberal Party to say, "No, we have ratted on this deal, we're not going to support it." How on earth is that my responsibility?
TARA BROWN: But they're not calling -
KEVIN RUDD: Therefore -
TARA BROWN: ..but they're not calling the Opposition gutless wonders, they're calling you a gutless wonder.
KEVIN RUDD: Well, I've just posed a question in reverse on the core piece of fact here -
TARA BROWN: Is there anything worse in Australia to be called a gutless wonder?
KEVIN RUDD: Can I just say, people will reach their own judgments.
TARA BROWN: While Prime Minister, the Lodge is Kevin Rudd's home and sanctuary.
TARA BROWN: Are you having rough days at the moment?
KEVIN RUDD: Oh, no. It's, um, you're designed for this. I mean, it's never -
TARA BROWN: How are you designed for it?
KEVIN RUDD: It's never -
TARA BROWN: Seriously.
KEVIN RUDD: It's never smooth.
TARA BROWN: You'd think it couldn't get much rougher. There's talk the party wants to replace him with his deputy, Julia Gillard - dump him even before the election, due at the end of the year. It's a long way to fall for a man who, until recently, was considered untouchable.
TARA BROWN: Just finally, if somebody within the party was brave enough to tap you on the shoulder and say, "You are a liability. You've got to go before the election," would you stand aside?
KEVIN RUDD: I'll be leading the Australian Labor Party and this Government into the next election, whenever it's held.
TARA BROWN: Do you think Julia Gillard would make a good prime minister?
KEVIN RUDD: We've been through thick and thin together, and she is a fantastic, first-class minister, a fantastic and first-class deputy prime minister and she's going to make a fantastic prime minister as well.
TARA BROWN: When?
KEVIN RUDD: In the future. She's, ah, she's great.
TARA BROWN: Not right now?
KEVIN RUDD: She's - she's great.
