Two things of which Rudd can be proud
AS A tearful Kevin Rudd announced on Wednesday night he was quitting politics, many of his critics in the Labor Party were still muttering darkly.
He should have done it long ago, they told each other, instead of remaining in Parliament as a destabilising influence on Julia Gillard and her government.
It was yet more evidence that he was right to get out. Ideas that he might have played a role mentoring young Labor MPs from the backbench were pie in the sky.
Mr Rudd is too divisive a figure, and will remain so, despite managing to salvage seats for the party after his leadership recall in the runup to September’s election.
But his tears didn’t take long to dry on Wednesday night as he listened to the parliamentary tributes that flowed from the Coalition side of politics as well as from his own.
They confirmed for him that he will be remembered for the two achievements of which he is most proud — steering Australia through the global financial crisis and delivering an official apology to Aboriginal Aust- ralians. These will form the basis of his legacy, his place in the history books.
As Prime Minister Tony Abbott said of the apology: ‘‘ That alone is something to crown an amazing public life.’’
Mr Abbott even offered a rare criticism of his political hero and mentor, John Howard, by comparing him unfavourably to Mr Rudd in the apology context.
‘‘ His immediate predecessor had lacked the imagination to grasp that opportunity,’’ Mr Abbott said.
Labor speakers acknowledged Mr Rudd’s success in saving an estimated 200,000 jobs with his GFC stimulus measures.
Paul Keating was more eloquent next day, saying that — in ‘‘an instance of international exceptionalism’’ — Mr Rudd had saved Australia from a deep and prolonged recession.
There were plenty of failures associated with Mr Rudd’s two periods as prime minister, of course.
And you can sense that he is disappointed that he did not achieve more, especially since his first parliamentary speech 15 years ago was about the use of power to benefit the many.
Back in early 2010, a few months before his first stint as PM was brought to a brutal end by his own party, Mr Rudd told me in a chat at Kirribilli House that he knew he had not met all the expec- tations of voters. But he also said he had not met his own expectations.
That feeling must be even more acute as his political career comes to a close.
Nevertheless, addressing ancient wrongs through the apology and sheltering Australia from an economic disaster that afflicted the rest of the world are major accomplishments.
They constitute an important legacy, even if Mr Rudd had hoped for more.
What is becoming clear is that Julia Gillard, his deadly rival, will not have achievements of similar importance to be remembered by.
The Rudd tributes came in a parliamentary week that saw the Abbott Government start tearing down much of what Ms Gillard hoped would constitute her legacy.
Bill after bill was introduced on the first working day of the new Parliament to demonstrate that all vestiges of her climate change policies are to go.
The carbon pricing mechanism, for which she risked everything — and which destroyed her credibility — will disappear without trace when new senators take their seats next July.
There are not many other big achievements on the books as a result of the Gillard years.
The national disability insurance scheme is significant, but it had its beginnings under Mr Rudd and was essentially bipartisan.
But Ms Gillard can at least take comfort from the knowledge that the gender issue will be good for her legacy, in the same way that being sacked by the GovernorGeneral in 1975 was good for Gough Whitlam’s.
Meanwhile, on the question of why Mr Rudd did not leave Parliament years ago, the answer is, he thought about it briefly.
In August 2011, he was ‘‘looking beyond the horizon of politics’’. But it was a pointless exercise because he was trapped by the hung Parliament.
Had Mr Rudd left politics then, it would have precipitated a by-election and almost certainly brought down the government.
The hung Parliament bound Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd together.
And blame for the damage Labor suffered as a result of their rivalry is part of the legacy of both.