Fran O'Sullivan: Rudd brought down by delusions of grandeur

Kevin Rudd. Photo / Getty Images

Rupert Murdoch fired the first torpedo into Kevin Rudd's leadership last November when he said the Prime Minister should "focus on running Australia".

In just four words the media magnate punctured Rudd's pompous attempts to transform Australia into a "middle power" on the world stage.

"Kevin Rudd is delusional if he thinks Australia can lead the world or act as a bridge between the US and China," blared the Herald Sun following its wide-ranging interview with the former Australian.

Murdoch's analysis of the Rudd persona was spot-on. Rudd's demise at the hands of a red-headed political cobra will hurt his considerable ego.

But what will devastate the former Prime Minister to his core is the fact that he will no longer get to rub shoulders with Barack Obama and Hu Jintao within the powerful confines of the G20. Wayne Swan will occupy "his seat" at this weekend's G20 meeting - a signal that the new Prime Minister has her focus on domestic priorities.

Rudd's vainglorious attempt to forge an Asia-Pacific Community - which would have reduced other small countries like New Zealand and Singapore to mere feeder-nation status - ruffled the feathers of Asean's power-brokers who did not appreciate him spoiling their game. Especially after the considerable political capital they had spent getting big players like China to accept Australia and New Zealand into the East Asia Summit in the first place.

His ambitions were seriously pricked at last year's Apec meeting when influential business people from throughout the Asia Pacific gave his ambitions the thumbs down.

In the initial stages of his prime ministership he also displayed a tin ear as far as this country was concerned. Not one Australian Cabinet Minister made the trek to Auckland for the celebration of the 25th anniversary of closer economic relations between our two countries.

Yet Helen Clark and a who's-who of New Zealand's political elite: Cabinet ministers, Opposition worthies and the original CER architects were present.

I wrote at the time it was a bit like celebrating a family silver wedding party with only mum present. Dad was off somewhere else, apparently so comfortable with the relationship that he didn't mind dishing out a public slight to mum - or simply chasing after his other more rewarding partners.

Julia Gillard made up for that slight when she led a bevy of Australian Cabinet ministers across to Wellington for the transtasman leadership forum. But it was not until Rudd hosted a joint Cabinet in Sydney last year that the bilateral relationship picked up real traction again.

Like John Key, Rudd also enjoyed staggering political popularity in his initial years of his prime ministership.

Key has read Gillard's brutal coup as a lesson to political leaders to stay close to their caucuses and voters. There is a kernel of truth to this.

But what should really resonate with Key is Murdoch's money quote: "focus on running [New Zealand]".

Like Rudd, our Prime Minister also has a taste for the world stage. He is not conceited enough to think of himself as change agent for the Asia-Pacific.

But he does have a tendency to be a bit star-struck when in the presence of leaders with much higher political wattage.

Does he really need to go to quite so many offshore jamborees? Kiwis do like to see the prime ministers as real people. Photo ops with the SAS in Afghanistan and with the All Whites in South Africa keep Key at the forefront of the television bulletins.

But while Key rides high in the opinion polls, the Government's overall political management is becoming increasingly flaky. The on-again off-again kite-flying over Kiwibank and the inept proposal to mine on the conservation estate are signals that Key needs to spend more time on strategic management.

Rudd surrounded himself in Canberra with a bunch of influential young staffers who had little experience of the real world but irked other Cabinet ministers' offices over the high-handed way they dealt with issues. Increasingly, the term "Rudd land" was used to describe their removal from reality. Around the Beehive there are also murmurs that the New Zealand Prime Minister's youthful press advisers are too big for their boots.

Their decision to dump on Trade Minister Tim Groser by confirming he had been dressed down on the basis of an anonymous complaint to Key's office for rowdy drinking with members of a travelling Kiwi business mission has not gone down well among other Cabinet ministers. Like Rudd, Key does not socialise broadly with his Cabinet colleagues. He has favourites. This works efficiently when things are riding high.

But he will need to ensure that colleagues do not feel he is loath to jeopardise his own popularity by fronting the tough stuff.

As Australian Cabinet minister Alex Downer observed this month, "Fame fed with substance can make a person great. Fame alone will destroy you."