Australian Open 26 1 2010
Australian Federal Election Poster, Hong Kong 2007.
Rudd nephew in 'disgusting' art controversy
Sunday Herald Sun
January 30, 2010 11:43PM
PMs nephew in new controversy
Art work called 'disgusting'
Lampoons dead Aussie soldiers
FRESH from being evicted from the Australian Open Tennis, Kevin Rudd's nephew is embroiled in fresh controversy over art works that lampoon dead Australian soldiers.
Van Thanh Rudd, who last week was ejected from the open for wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume with the logo "Australian Made", has been attacked over "disrespectful and disgraceful art".
The art work juxtaposes a picture of Shane Warne making an impassioned appeal for a wicket against a coffin of a Digger draped in an Australian flag being carried to a Hercules transport plane for the journey home.
Another montage entitled The Rape depicts real pictures of identifiable rugby league players positioned so they look as if they are engaged in sex acts.
Mr Rudd is the son of the Prime Minister's older brother, Malcolm. According to his website which displays the art works, Mr Van Thanh Rudd was born in the Queensland coastal town of Nambour - the Prime Minister's home town - and now resides in Melbourne.
In what appeared to be a veiled reference to the Prime Minister, Mr Baldwin said anyone with any influence on Mr Van Thanh Rudd or his family should get him to pull the website down.
Prime Minister Rudd has previously condemned artist Bill Henson over his erotic depictions of children describing them as "disgusting". But presented with Mr Van Thanh Rudd's images a spokesman would only say: "The Prime Minister believes all Australians should respect the service and sacrifice of our Australian servicemen and women."
Mr Van Thanh was fined $234 by police for his Klu Klux Klan protest at the Australian Tennis Open. But he could also be facing possible civil action from the Australian Made campaign if he ignores a legal warning to stop using its logo for his anti-racism protests.
Mr Rudd, 36, was fined by police for "riotous behaviour"' after he and fellow Revolutionary Socialist Party member Sam King staged a protest against the treatment of Indian students and immigration policies.
Australian Made campaign chief executive Ian Harrison said the organisation had told lawyers to write to Mr Rudd requiring a commitment from him not to "misuse" the logo.
The Prime Minister's nephew said the protest was aimed at drawing attention to racism in Melbourne and the incarceration of asylum-seekers.
"We don't see why Australia has the right to be the most racist country in the world," he told the ABC.
"Australia funds the genocidal Sri Lankan regime and then rejects the refugees who flee. In this country you could not get away with doing that against whites. So they're the basic reasons we're having the protest today," he told the ABC.
Mr King said the idea for the demonstration stemmed from a cartoon in an Indian newspaper that likened Victorian police to the Ku Klux Klan.
Kevin Rudd defends nephew Van Thanh Rudd's right to protest
Herald Sun
February 05, 2010
KEVIN Rudd has defended the right of his nephew to use controversial protest tactics, even though he disagrees with him.
Van Thanh Rudd, a Melbourne-based artist, made headlines in the Indian media after dressing up in a Ku Klux Klan hood on Australia
Day to protest against violence directed at Indian students.
Asked about those tactics, the Prime Minister said he had a broad family.
"We all believe in free speech but I don't agree with what he said," Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio today.
"I haven't had a chat with him for quite some months."
Mr Rudd pointed out that his 36-year-old nephew had two brothers - a policeman and a member of the Australian Defence Force.
They are the sons of the Prime Minister's brother Malcolm, a Vietnam veteran, and his wife Tuoi.
"I am not a socialist. I have never been a socialist and I never will be a socialist," Mr Rudd said.
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