Rudd's 'f***ing' rant at factions
By Glenn Milne
The Sunday Telegraph
September 19, 2009 8:32PM
PM Kevin Rudd during question time. Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra.
KEVIN Rudd has had another expletive-riddled brain explosion - this time directed at Labor's faction bosses, including three women MPs.
The outburst, which left even the hardened ALP operatives who witnessed it shocked, occurred two Mondays ago.
The faction leaders had gone to see the Prime Minister in his Parliament House office to object to Government plans to cut MPs' printing allowances from $100,000 to $75,000 a year.
The decision was in response to a report into parliamentary perks by the Auditor-General.
Mr Rudd had been given an advance copy and had decided on the dramatic cut, fearing a voter backlash to the revelations about how the allowances were being abused.
But the ALP caucus had no input to the decision and there was strong resistance to the move. The faction leaders argued that the Auditor-General, while critical of some aspects of the use of the allowances had not discovered any overt cases of rorting.
They asked for the meeting to put the caucus case that the decision to immediately slash the allowances made all Labor MPs look like they'd acted illegally. The meeting was attended by Sharryn Jackson, Maria Vamvakinou and Senator Carol Brown _ all from the Left faction _ and Senator Michael Forshaw, Senator Don Farrell and Senator David Feeney, from the Right.
According to sources, three of those MPs present put an initial case to the Prime Minister for retention of the printing allowances. But it was when Senator Feeney, a former Victorian State Secretary spoke up, that the Prime Minister "exploded''.
According to sources Mr Rudd said: "I don't care what you f***ers think!"
He then went on, singling out Senator Feeney declaring: "You can get f***ed". Before asking in regard to the printing allowance issue: ``Don't you f***ing understand?''
Sources said this was only a part of what was a much more detailed expletive-riddled verbal attack on the faction leaders. The sources defended Senator Feeney saying his argument had been ``reasonable''.
"David's problem was that he was the third or fourth person to a question of the Prime Minister. Obviously Rudd was fed up by that time and Feeney just copped it both barrels.''
Senior government sources said the outburst from the Prime Minister was directed explicitly at Senator Feeney rather than at all the faction leaders.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said in response to the claims of a blow-up: "The Prime Minister stands by his decision to significantly reduce the printing entitlements of all Senators and Members.''
Contacted yesterday, Senator Feeney said he did not comment on private meetings. But the nature of the exchange has now filtered through the ALP caucus, where Mr Rudd's temper is well known.
The Prime Minister goes out of his way to publicly cultivate the impression of being calm, unflappable and reasonable. This private outburst will shock some voters, especially the church-going Prime Minister's use of the ``f'' word.
Former prime minister John Howard was never known to swear in this way, publicly or privately. The language of both Paul Keating and Bob Hawke was acknowledged as being ``colourful''.
Previous temper tantrums from the Prime Minister have included a verbal assault on an RAAF VIP hostess on Mr Rudd's private plane. The issue on that occasion was the standard of service.
The PM, after at first denying the incident, apologised to the hostess concerned, declaring he was ``only human''.
There were also reports that he lost it on a trip to see Australian troops in Afghanistan when his hairdryer was misplaced.
But the Prime Minister's office denied those reports.
This creation of the International Socialist cabal is a GRUB and a LIAR.
He has always been a GRUB and a LIAR and always will be a GRUB and a LIAR
Call him by any bumper sticker logo his media spin doctors and apologist’s can dream up,however he is still a GRUB and a Liar.
His Useful Idiots are simply playing their part in the International Socialist script, when they no longer need ya they don’t feed ya.
