By political reporters Eliza Borrello and Stephanie Anderson.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has released a series of letters in which he claims Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had promised to support his bid for the United Nations’ top job as recently as December.
Mr Rudd made a last-minute dash to Sydney yesterday morning in the hope of lobbying Mr Turnbull to nominate him as secretary-general of the United Nations.
But on arrival the Prime Minister called him and said the Government would not be backing him.
On Friday evening a spokeswoman for Mr Rudd released three letters which Mr Rudd had sent to Mr Turnbull about the issue.
In one, dated May 1, 2016, Mr Rudd said he was shocked to learn Mr Turnbull would not be backing him, claiming he had expressed support as recently as December.
“You will recall that last September I contacted you asking for guidance on how I should address the matter of your previously stated support to me for my candidature when I met Foreign Minister Bishop at the UN General Assembly in September,” he wrote.
“You in fact sent me a message on your preferred Wickr system where you stated that you and the FM were ‘as one’ in your support for my candidature.
“…We continued this discussion further on Wednesday 23 December in your Sydney office. Once again you stated your support for my candidature. You added that when the time came to lodge my nomination, you now wanted to take it to Cabinet to avoid the perception of a ‘captain’s pick’. You also said to me that the Cabinet process would not change the outcome.
Top Comments
Rudd just keeps underlining that Turnbull made the right decision. And, personally, I'm reviewing how I feel about the Julia/Kevin debacle and Kevin's behaviour a few years ago. And it doesn't paint Kevin in a kindly light.
Turnbull has shown more kindness towards Rudd in the way he has dealt with this than most of his Labor colleagues ever have. And now they're trying to make political mileage out of it! But really, at the end of the day, you're either a good fit for a job or you're not. And Rudd clearly is not.
The Liberals did exactly the same thing to Tony Abbott, so I think they can get off their high horses on that score. I don't think Rudd is the right fit for this job either, but I do think that Turnbull's refusal to meet with him and explain his reasons is disrespectful.