Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein were broke once, too.

On a crisp Saturday night in Beijing Kevin Rudd stood up on a podium to talk about Australian women. Namely, the women in his life: His grandmother, his mother, his wife and his daughter.

It was a long speech which made clear the Former Prime Minister has a long running and deep respect for the women in his life.

Here are the highlights:

When Rudd and  Therese Rein got married, they were broke.

“When we married the day after she graduated, we didn’t have more than a thousand dollars in the bank,” Rudd said.

Rudd and Rein are a great team. Check out when Mamamia staff members knew their partner was ‘The One.’ (Post continues after video.)

Rein tried to get a loan from the bank to start her business (you know, that business that she sold off for more than $200 million, and was listed by the Sunday Times as the best 100 companies to work for, that one). She got rejected, because she wasn’t the man of the house.

“She went to the bank manager where we had the home mortgage account. He listened politely. But then rang me up afterwards and said: ‘Your wife has been in asking for a bank loan. But you are the man of the house. I will need you to guarantee the loan. And to take out a further mortgage on the house.”

Rudd didn’t have the guts to tell her for TWO DECADES, lest she gave the bank manager a piece of her mind.

“I didn’t have the heart to tell my wife this happened for another 20 years.”

Women in China playing bigger & bigger role in economy. Spoke at their major conf on our Oz experience #hervillage pic.twitter.com/u4pIVxcbIR

— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) April 2, 2016

I wonder whether Rein ended up hiring that bank manager as her secretary. That’s what I would’ve done.

Rudd’s grandfather was an alcoholic, so his grandmother essentially ran the farm.

As he tells it, all the women in his family are strong, strong broads:

“From the age of five, my mother’s job each morning, with her six brothers and sisters, was to get out of bed well before dawn to herd the dairy cattle for milking. By seven o’clock she would return to the farm house for a modest breakfast before walking five miles up the mountain to school. Her father had a weakness for alcohol. In fact, the farm was run by her mother.”

Don’t forget about Rudd’s daughter Jessica Rudd, who has a pretty formidable track record in her own right:

“Our daughter Jessica trained as a lawyer in Australia. She then began writing novels and already has two books published… Running a business is hard, particularly while also giving birth to and raising two little children, one only three months old.”

It’s safe to say that Rudd has learnt a lot from the women in his life.

Have you ever been rejected for a bank loan?

*Image via Getty.