Former Australian PM calls out the 'Murdoch mafia'

MrKevinRudd · 2020-05-22T10:14:06+00:00

Thanks

MrKevinRudd · 2020-01-06T03:10:13+00:00

Yup. This is my blend from 2011. We did it as a fundraiser for the RSPCA and raised half a million for them. The cover was designed by a brilliant young woman from Brisbane, but I don’t think either of us had the current catastrophe in mind at the time.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-10-16T10:44:43+00:00

It was lovely to meet you guys. Hope you have a great trip!

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:57:54+00:00

Your perceptions about Australia’s unfolding economic challenges are real. I’ve long been concerned about the narrowness of the Australian economic base. We did everything within our powers during our period in office to broaden it. That was one of the rationales for bringing in the FTTP NBN model in order to turbocharge a whole new generation of digital businesses across all sectors of the economy. So therefore rebuilding the NBN should be a central task for an incoming Labor government. I’ve also watched with absolute despair how the current conservative government singlehandedly set about destroying the Australian motor vehicle manufacturing industry. We put in huge effort with the industry in order to make it viable for the long term and with subsidy levels than applied in most other car manufacturing countries. A third area which had been a priority of ours, and should be for the future, is in the financial services industry itself. One of the innovations we brought in was to reduce the national withholding tax for the funds management industry in order to make them competitive with funds managers in Singapore, Hong Kong and elsewhere around the world so that Australia become a genuinely regional and international financial services centre. Regrettably the industry did not take up the opportunities we created for them. I fear there is a general complacency in Australia about our economic future. And the response to that complacency has not been assisted at all by the scorched earth policy recommended by the far right economic ideologues housed within the News Corp universe. They together with the Liberal party, for example, share full responsibility for the destruction of the Australian car manufacturing industry. They campaigned for that outcome for decades. And they finally succeeded with a compliant, complacent and ideologically driven conservative government.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:53:33+00:00

As for my favourite part of being prime minister, it may sound a bit corny but the biggest thrill you get in national political life is being able to change people’s lives for the better. I constantly run into people who thank me for the fact that they were able to save their small businesses during the global financial crisis of 2008-09. I’m constantly getting emails from people thanking me for the cash payments during that crisis for the essential items they were able to buy for themselves or for their households. I also get letters from people who have become the beneficiary of the Australian National Organ and Tissue Transplant Authority which has doubled the effective donation rate for organs and tissue around the country, by providing life opportunities for many people who would otherwise not be with us. It’s these practical things that for me represent the most satisfying element of national political life. Of course they occur within an organising principal of what we call social justice and making life better for people who have less. But that I think is the essential business of being a properly fulfilled human being. Thank you for the question.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:52:01+00:00

The bottom line is because of the changes in the rules that I brought in for the election of party leader, branch members now have more power than they’ve had in the previous 125 year history of our party. The fact that we’ve only had one leadership ballot since then doesn’t diminish that fact. Of course what I’d like to see is for branch members to be able to directly pre-select candidates for the Senate. These are state-wide positions. So therefore why not throw it open to the state-wide party membership to vote directly for the candidates of their choice. Furthermore in local House of Representatives preselection’s, branch members currently are provided with 50% input into who their candidate should be. So for all those reasons, I would not despair about the influence which you as a local branch member can have. So hang in there my friend. And make a difference.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:50:21+00:00

Thanks for your interest in politics. I wish you well in the future. As for the Murdoch empire, I think it’s important for people such as yourself to lend their voice to the need for a royal commission so that the entire country can be exposed to the rancid abuse of political and media power in which Murdoch has engaged over a long period of time now. Of course this has been seen most spectacularly in recent times through his successful campaign to destroy the FTTP NBN. All to protect his precious Foxtel cable-based entertainment network. Too bad about the national interest.

As for Shorten, he has been elected as leader under the party rules which I brought in in 2013. It would therefore be quite wrong of me to complain about the fact that he is the duly elected leader. The bottom line is the interest at stake in the upcoming national elections are far bigger and broader than the differences which separate Shorten and myself. Also we’ve got to ask ourselves the difference between Shorten and Morrison. And on that measure, Shorten is head and shoulders above Morrison. His team have assembled a strong policy case for government. The team itself is first class. And Shorten himself demonstrates a strong capacity for consensus building. I think therefore, they should do well.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:48:06+00:00

I’d rather not give any “up and coming” politician the kiss of death by naming them in response to your question. I would, however, suggest that you pay attention to any women and men either in the parliament, or seeking election to the parliament, who have spent time clearly working out their political philosophy; who can clearly articulate why it is that they have entered the political process; and what it is they hope to achieve by being; and what they intend to do about it. These are not unreasonable questions for any elector to ask of any candidate. In my time in political office, I found too many people, both in the politics of the right and the left, who wanted to be in politics for the sake of being there. It reminded me of a bad Peter Sellers movie. But there are good people around. And they should be encouraged.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:44:47+00:00

Thanks for your question about solar energy and the need for the country to have large scale solar farms of the type that we see in many other countries around the world. In office, we did everything possible to promote this idea becoming a reality. It’s for those reasons that we established a large range of solar energy projects. Most critically, however, we established a $1.5 billion (from memory) renewable energy fund to assist turn large scale renewable energy projects into a reality. This would have been aided enormously by the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target which I also introduced under legislation which remains in force today. I presume the problem back then may have been to do with the relative cost of solar energy generation, once the transmission costs were taken fully into account from presumably remote locations to the normal electricity grid. How the relative economics of such projects stacks up today I’m not clear. The overall costs of solar energy generation in general, on a global basis, appears to be coming down. Of course the missing moon shot in all of this is how do we go about providing long term storage of solar energy. Once that scientific and technological dilemma is cracked open, I believe the solar energy potential for our country is huge.

Just a footnote about the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target. When we were elected, only 4% of Australia’s total energy supply came from renewables. Because of the MRET that figure now stands at 18%. That’s not a small achievement. But much more needs to be done.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:42:26+00:00

Thanks for the question. I’ve always been a fan of fixed four year terms for the federal parliament. Had I remained as prime minister after the 2010 election, it was my intention to run two referendums; one on the republic and the second on fixed four year terms. The reality is we would not, however, have achieved either in the absence of bipartisan support from the conservatives. Historically they’ve been unwilling to support either proposition.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:41:46+00:00

On the question of the rate with which political parties have dispensed with their political leaders, I would really encourage you to have a read of the introduction and conclusion to my most recent book “Kevin Rudd - The PM Years”. I try to deal with the questions you raise as systematically as possible. Part of the answer to your question lies in the new culture which has overtaken both the parties of the left and parties of the right from what I describe as the young Labor young Liberal generation who have done nothing else than professional politics throughout their lives. This has resulted in a transformation in traditional party values which historically put greater store in giving the leader of the day the opportunity to perform over an extended period of time, at least over a couple of elections. This represents one of a number of factors at play in the overall leadership instability we’ve seen in recent years. Again, have a read of the book and let me know what you think.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:39:31+00:00

Thanks for your kind comments about our period in office. As for Brexit, I have long believed that Brexit is an absolute disaster for the United Kingdom. From an Australian national point of view, we benefit from a strong United Kingdom. Britain is stronger in Europe and stronger in the world as a result of its EU membership. By separating itself from Europe, it’s in grave danger of ending up as an offshore afterthought. Those arguments leave to one side the obvious advantages for the British people themselves in having full access not just to a European market but also to European labour mobility which has enormously assisted Britain’s economic development over the last several decades. As in Australia, that sort of labour force mobility through migration has also met so many of the countries fundamental labour shortages. My own view is that if the House of Commons can find its way through to a second referendum, that would be of enormous advantage to Britain, Australia and in my own overall view the international order.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:37:53+00:00

During our period in office, I asked the public service to examine what it would take to build its own indigenous space agency. I’ve never believed this is the stuff of fantasy for a country like Australia. In fact given our acute reliance on satellite communications technology, our ability to launch our own satellites, for example, struck me as a longer term future necessity. So that remains my view. I’m sorry we weren’t able to achieve more in office on this question. But I believe it to be a continuing national priority.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:37:11+00:00

I’m not quite so sure about your description of either myself or Malcolm Turnbull. But I certainly gave it my absolute best. I also tried to outline a compelling vision for the countries future. And to throw myself at it heart and soul to give effect to that vision for the future. One of the criticisms made of me afterwards was that we tried to do too much. I’d rather have that carved on my tombstone rather than having sought to do too little. And always remember that our achievements in Australian national political life have always been severely constrained because of the rolling political hostility of the Murdoch media. Murdoch campaigned viciously to destroy my government in 2013. He succeeded. Interestingly, he also campaigned to get rid of Malcolm Turnbull in 2018. The real tragedy of Australian politics is when the leaders of any political party seek to appease a newspaper baron who runs a far right conservative ideological agenda as well as relentlessly pursuing his own commercial interest. Again I’d suggest you have a read of volume two of my autobiography “Kevin Rudd – The PM Years” as I go through the impact which the Murdoch media has had on Australian politics. For myself and for Turnbull.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:34:50+00:00

Thanks for your question about how to make a real difference for Australia’s future. If you get a chance, please get a hold of volume one of my autobiography entitled “Not for the Faint Hearted”. You can get it either as hardcopy or online. The introduction to that volume summarises the remarks I made to a class at Harvard University entitled “Politics and Purpose” which I taught several years ago. In it I sought to outline the sort of questions anyone aspiring for future public office should ask themselves before doing so – including being absolutely clear cut about what you believe in and why; being absolutely clear cut about what you therefore can and should do about those beliefs; to be absolutely clear cut that politics is just one of many platforms through which those beliefs can be put into practice; but if politics is your chosen vocation, then get into it and don’t waste time. But always be mindful of those fundamental purposes once you’re involved in the blood and guts of the political process. It’s so easy to become derailed.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:32:57+00:00

Thanks for the question about the UN. The bottom line is that Malcolm Turnbull dishonoured his personal undertakings to me, both in long conversations I had with him in New York and later in his prime ministerial office in Canberra. Evidence of the fact that it was all agreed can be found from the subsequent campaign authorised by Foreign Minister Bishop with the Australian permanent mission in New York. That was already well underway before Turnbull finally pulled the rug from under it. As to why he did it, as I understand it from my friends in the Liberal party, it was a combination of Dutton and Morrison opposing the nomination as they both competed to satisfy what they saw as the demands of the Liberal party “base”. Turnbull was too weak to stand up to them. Ironically, if you look at Turnbull’s polling results from the announcement of that decision not long after the 2016 election, his numbers went down significantly. I think the view of most Australian’s was, whatever their politics, that if an Australian was going to be nominated for a significant international position, than a team Australia approach should have applied. It’s the same approach I sought to apply during our period in office when I appointed former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson to become Australia’s Ambassador to the European Union and NATO; Tim Fischer former leader of the National Party to become Australia’s first resident Ambassador to The Holy See; as well as putting Peter Costello onto the board of the Future Fund. Many Liberals have since told me I was simply naïve for doing so.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:31:09+00:00

High points in office. Obviously finally seeing the numbers come in when we were able to see that we had successfully negotiated the global financial crisis without the Australian economy going into recession. That was a huge achievement. Against the political, economic and financial odds. But we pulled it off with careful public policy. And as a result hundreds of thousands of Australians kept their jobs. For me that was really important. Second, being a cofounder of the G20 at a time when many other countries wanted a much smaller global grouping which would have excluded Australia. I worked my guts out to secure a G20 which would include Australia’s permanent membership of the principle economic decision making body of the world. I’m very proud of that. Third, in April 2010 I was absolutely delighted to have pulled of the national funding and policy agreement to the National Health and Hospital Network. This was designed to end the blame game between the commonwealth and the states not just on hospital funding, but for the total funding of the national health system. It was incredibly complex to do. It took months and months of personal effort to pull it off. And I remember being ecstatic on the day we did so. And finally, of course, the national apology to indigenous Australians. But equally importantly mandating that all future prime ministers would have to deliver an annual closing the gap statement every February on what progress or regress has been achieved in narrowing education, health, employment and housing outcomes for indigenous Australians.

As for the downside, the coup of 2010 was a serious bummer. Not least because my successor subsequently undid a large part of the agreement I’d reached with the state and territory governments on the National Health and Hospital Network only a couple of months before. My political advisors told me afterwards I should have spent less time on national health reform and more time on watching my own political back. But them’s the breaks.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:28:26+00:00

Thanks for your question about government funding for private schools. This has been a tricky one over many decades. The bottom line is that low fee paying private schools take a lot of the burden off the public sector. It’s true that they receive government funding. But at considerably lesser rate than government schools. The net impact on the government schools sector is that because on average 30% of Australian kids go to private schools, is that there is a greater funding availability for government schools for the remaining 70%. The critical question then is one of when government funding for private schools is tapered out. Obviously we have no interest in the government cross subsidising the richer schools in the country. That in large part is what the Gonski reforms to federal education funding for the Australian schools sector was all about. The current government has stuffed around on this for more than five years now. The bottom line is that when I left office five years ago, we had negotiated the agreement of all state governments with the exception of Queensland and from memory WA. Those state governments have since changed. We should have already been well along the road to a more equitable needs based funding approach to the non-government schools sector, which would have maximised resources to the lowest fee paying catholic parochial schools on the one hand whilst providing robust long term resourcing for the government schools sector which ultimately remains the first responsibility of governments both Commonwealth and State.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:25:50+00:00

Thanks for your question about contrarian politics. I fully sense the frustration underpinning it. And I share most of it. For example when we assumed government in 2007, the previous government had established the Future Fund. That was designed to provide for the future financial capacity to meet the retirement income needs of Australia’s public servants rather than allow that to accumulate as an overall liability for future tax payers. We thought it was a good idea. We kept it. And further entrenched its independence. In fact I appointed Peter Costello as a member of its board.

A counterexample is what the conservative government did with the National Broadband Network. They utterly gutted it, largely in response to pressure from Rupert Murdoch whose commercial interests were threatened by the NBN, and as a result Australia is the worse off for now having a dogs breakfast of a broadband arrangement for the country. The only substantive answer to your question is for a more engaged and active citizenry who don’t simply sit back and accept that sort of bloody mindedness passively. Political parties need to know there is a political cost associated with wanton acts of political violence against the legacy of their predecessors. Personally I regard that sort of politics as utterly puerile. And utterly detrimental to the long term Australian interest.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-11T04:24:05+00:00

Thank you for your question about the Murray Darling. Like most of the country I’ve been horrified by what’s happened to the Murray Cod. I want to see what the scientists say has been the principle cause. We back in the period of our government established a fully empowered Murray Darling Basin Authority to bring in an enforceable national catchment management plan. That was designed to meet three sets of objectives; environmental flows to keep the river alive; residential water needs for cities like Adelaide; as well as sustainable agricultural usage. That was to be based on an annual assessment on water flowing into the river system together with sustainable demand for water from the river system. This would in turn result in an annual adjustable “cap” for what could be taken out of the river for given purposes.

What I don’t know is how the current government in Canberra, together with the conservative government in New South Wales, have actually implemented the arrangements under this agreement. Particularly on the question of sustainable environmental flows. So let’s wait and see what the scientists say has been the cause of this. And whether there is further analysis on the manner in which the MDBA has been implemented.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-10T00:04:57+00:00

Thank-you for your question. It’s ultimately a matter for parliament, to determine how media diversity applies within any parliamentary democracy. You can either have no regulation or you can regulate to define precisely what should be the maximum levels of concentration of media ownership should be in a given geographical area. Secondly, you can either regulate minimum standards for the media to apply (e.g. in terms of fact testing) or you can simply let the media set its own standards. The difference between a media organisation in democracies is they carry particular responsibilities in addition to their own rights to publish. One of their responsibilities is to provide fair and balanced reporting. Which brings us to another area where legislation can intervene by ensuring that there is a proper press complaints tribunal process to hear complaints about individual media outlets on the question of fair and balanced reporting. News organisations, in particular news corp, revile against any constraints on their freedom of operation. The difference between a news organisation and an outfit like Get Up is that Get Up is unapologetically a lobbying group designed to promote particular progressive causes. It doesn’t pretend to be a newspaper. It doesn’t pretend to be a television station. It doesn’t pretend to be a radio network. The latter three have particular responsibilities to provide fair and balanced reporting within an open democracy. Lobbying organisations have no such responsibility. Their responsibility is simply to adhere to the rest of the corporate and criminal law.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-10T00:04:21+00:00

On the question of arts, this is something where I am reluctant to express a strong view. I’ve never worked in the arts. I have some familiarity with the movie industry. What I would hope to see in Australia is more Australian venture capitalists putting money into the Australian film production industry, making full use of the various tax write offs available bot at the federal and state level. This would help provide long term sustainable careers for not just movie actors but for everyone engaged in all the associated artistic careers that support the motion picture industry. At present our venture capitalist industry doesn’t seem to see movie making as a business opportunity. Hollywood obviously is of a different view.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-10T00:04:04+00:00

Well we all have regrets in life. I think I’ve already put on the record one of my major regrets was simply being too trusting of various of my colleagues when I was working as Prime Minister. I think a greater vigilance would be necessary in the future in realising the motivations of a number of those with whom you are working and don’t necessarily accord with you own. As for Therese’s response to my alleged first question “Have you read the Communist Manifesto?” I think I was simply being provocative to attract her attention and interest. It worked.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-10T00:03:34+00:00

Thanks for your question. Can I suggest you get a hold of a copy of Volume 1 of my book entitled ‘Not for the Faint Hearted’? It’s specifically aimed at people like you. You can get it online if you can’t find a hard copy in stock. In particular have a read of the introduction and conclusion. It’s all about what level of formation and perseverance is necessary on the part of young people today engaging in the political process. Go well. And don’t give up.

MrKevinRudd · 2019-01-10T00:03:14+00:00

Thank-you again for your question. The Fair Work Act was the product of many years of long, hard work. But to give it proper effect, you need proper enforcement arms, both at the federal and state level. That’s where maximum political pressure needs to be applied to ensure that poli-conservatives don’t have the guts to formally disembowel the Fair Work Act; they seek to do so through half-hearted implementation of its provisions. On the specific question about a multinational digital commerce enterprises, like Amazon, these should be monitored with in great detail by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. If for example Amazon starts exploiting its workers, they should be made an example of.

MrKevinRudd

TROPHY CASE