Kevin Rudd. Photo / Getty Images
It's that time of year again, when politicians' thoughts turn to knifing their leader. Almost exactly five years ago, Julia Gillard ousted Kevin Rudd. Almost exactly two years ago, Rudd returned the favour.
A documentary about that toxic era in Australian politics, aptly named
The Killing Season
, is reopening stab wounds. It features Gillard claiming Rudd tried to bully her physically and Rudd accusing her of "active betrayal" and falsifying events.
The rot set in, according to Gillard's recollection, even before Rudd's Labor swept to power in late 2007. At a meeting earlier that year to discuss parliamentary tactics, the pair clashed about the issue of the day. Rudd, says Gillard, was "always very anxious to strut his stuff at Question Time". After the tactics meeting, he "very physically stepped into my space, and it was quite a bullying encounter ... It was a menacing, angry performance".
"Utterly false ... Utterly, utterly false" is Rudd's response. On the contrary, he tells Sarah Ferguson, who made the three-part ABC TV series starting on Tuesday, there were "never" any sharp words with Gillard - not even when she told him he was for the chop. "I didn't believe that she would do that until that point". And, as he remembers it, "I said to her repeatedly: 'But Julia, you're a good person. Why are you doing this?"'
His most painful memory of the coup is of "the active sense of betrayal, betrayal by people who were very close to you, betrayal by people you thought you could trust". For her part, Gillard recalls the "decision-making chaos" that she says characterised Rudd's term as prime minister, his psychological "frailty" and need to be the centre of attention. She held frequent talks with then treasurer Wayne Swan about "managing Kevin", but they never discussed changing leaders, she says.
Dominique Pelicot has been on trial for orchestrating the mass rape of his wife.