Kevin Rudd: A “Rude and Dysfunctional Bastard” says Roxon

Former Health Minister and Gillard-apologist Nicola Roxon has launched a scathing attack on Kevin Rudd calling him a “rude and dysfunctional bastard.”

“Removing Kevin was an act of political bastardry for sure. But this act of political bastardry was made possible only because Kevin had been such a bastard himself to so many people already,” she said.

“We left everyone looking for other answers and by doing this we did a great disservice to both Kevin and Julia.”

Ms Roxon insists that getting rid of Kevin Rudd on the night of the long knives was still “the right thing to do” but admits that it was done in a “clumsy way”.

“I think we had all the right reasons to act but I think we were clumsy and short-sighted in the way we did it.”

Ms Roxon said that Labor needed to explain Mr Rudd’s faults as a prime minister to the public.

“We didn’t explain the dysfunctional decision making and lack of strategy… we didn’t talk about his rudeness or contempt for staff or disrespect for public servants.”

The former Labor frontbencher, who quit politics at last month’s election to “spend more time with her family,” (LOL) also tabled some “handy hints” for any future Labor government.

Perhaps not knifing a popular prime minister might be one of them.

Ms Roxon says ministers should be given greater responsibility and prime ministers less.

The former member for Gellibrand who was health minister under the Rudd government and later Australia’s first female attorney-general under Ms Gillard, also suggested Mr Rudd had a messiah complex.

FATAL ATTRACTION!

“Accept that you are not always right and cannot always fix everything,” she said. “Kevin had a fatal attraction to everyone else’s problems.”

Ms Roxon said that in her opinion, for the good of the Labor Party Mr Rudd should quit politics because while he remained in the Parliament, destabilising polls would be run about his popularity.

POLITICAL POISON!

Ms Roxon also criticised Labor for being overly polite when Mr Rudd was ousted in 2010.

“What the rest of the world calls a polite white lie became political poison.”

Ms Roxon said the former prime minister “had an overwhelming inclination to focus on minutiae, as a way of avoiding the big, harder decisions.”