I've heard worse....

That wasn't the rumour that I've heard about Tony Abbott, Mr Marr. Did you dig deep enough?

Can Rudd change? History says he's done it before

Today one of the most live questions in Australia is the question of whether Kevin Rudd is capable of being a better PM than he was during his very eventful first term (in which he spared Australia's economy from the GFC), which was cut short in mid 2010 by "the coup". Can Rudd change? Has the bruising experience of being sacked at short notice given Rudd cause for reflection and transformation? I've read one commentator who seems to actually have a clue about political history (unlike myself) who claimed that in general party leaders do a better job second time around. I can't offer any opinion on this point, or on the question of whether Rudd has changed for the better since 2010 (clearly his appearance has changed and he's looking considerably older). On one point though, there is plenty of evidence which I'd like to point out. Is Rudd capable of major personal change? I'd argue that he has already undergone a striking self-created transformation in his transition from bureaucrat to politician, but it is debatable whether this was a deep or a superficial change.

As David Marr (has he been reading my ex-published piece about Rudd?) recently pointed out on ABCTV, Rudd had to undertake a major transformation in order to become a successful politician. Some people are born politicians, but it appears that Rudd is not one of these people. Perhaps this is the wellspring of his appeal with the Australian people. Rudd was a spectacularly successful politician in 2007, but don't forget that he was once an electoral loser. If there is a formula for "Politics for Dummies" Rudd surely discovered it, smart and persistent as he is, and perhaps following this winning formula with discipline is a more effective method of winning elections than a less conscious and planned approach.

Rudd's first attempt at politics was unsuccessful. In 1996 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the seat of Griffith in Queensland. It is an almost constant theme in the body of literature about successful role models in business and other fields that very successful people have failure in their past, and they bounce back and also learn from their failure or failures, and that learning is possibly of crucial importance. In 1998 Rudd managed to win the seat of Griffith, and it has been the base of his career ever since. Rudd is now widely acknowledged as a brilliant political campaigner. He has come a long way. Some time between 1996 and 1998 a self-initiated metamorphosis evidently happened. The best place that I know to find information about this is the book Inside Kevin 07 by Christine Jackman. This is a book completely lacking in objectivity, as Jackman was a friend of the Rudd's when it was written (and could still be for all I know), but the advantage to this is that it gives a much more intimate account of the personalities involved with Rudd's 2007 electoral triumph, and Jackman was able to source a lot of information about the time before Rudd was a politician, from people who were there at the time. Rudd's former boss ex-premier of Queensland Wayne Goss and Rudd's brother lobbyist Greg Rudd both described Kevin's metamorphosis in the book. He lost a lot of his illusions and naivety about what it takes to succeed in politics, and most importantly, he got out among the people at every opportunity, a crash course in personal charm and dealing with humans. It worked! It is one thing to read this in a book, but a picture tells a thousand words, they say. I knew if this personal transformation was really as dramatic as they say in the book, there should be a considerable difference between Rudd's appearance before and after. We've all seen the "after" shots of Rudd in unavoidable media saturation, but the "before" shots are rarely shown in media stories and are surprisingly hard to find on the internet. I'm sorry that I can't offer any link to a photo or video of Rudd before 1998. There was once one blurry amateur shot on one of the photo-sharing websites (could have been Flickr) of a young Rudd campaigning in 1996, but it appears that it has been withdrawn from publication. It was amazing. It was like a different person. THe iconic smile was absent. Rudd stood with a hunched posture looking like he had not a single shred of confidence. A woman looking like that would attract labels such as "wallflower" or "shrinking violet". I know, I've been there, done that! In my opinion this photo casts into doubt the unfortunately popular idea that Rudd has some kind of personality disorder associated with inflated self-image, such as narcississtic PD. It is my understanding that such disorders are inborn, but it appears that there was once a time in his adult years when Rudd manifested as quite a different personality.

I'm so sorry that I can't find anything like that shot to show you first hand, because seeing is believing. I know that Rudd is capable of change, and you can check the evidence yourself in the book. Rudd has changed dramatically in the past, by learning in response to failure. This is a hallmark of very high achievers. Whether or not he has tired of changing to meet the demands of others, or has the basic resources to again meet the needs of the top job in our nation while also leading a high-powered team, are questions that I can only guess at.

Inside Kevin 07
Jackman, Christine
http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/display_title.asp?ISBN=9780522855722&Author=Jackman,%20Christine

Daniel Domscheit-Berg discussing Julian Assange on Lateline

Daniel Domscheit-Berg has been interviewed on Australian TV discussing Julian Assange. A picture was created of an Australian leader who is highly intelligent, autocratic, eccentric, "not really a team player", someone who doesn't quite belong in human society, a control freak who operates on fear and anger, who prefers to surround himself with compliant and uncritical people, and a bloke who let fame go to his head.

And just for good measure, Domscheit-Berg dropped a big hint in the direction of the autistic spectrum, without actually saying the word "autistic":
"So, on one hand he's a very intelligent person and he's very good with, for example, understanding systems, which is I think key to why WikiLeaks was created in the first place, and understanding of how a system works, how society works, how the media works and all these things. But on the other hand, he's not really good, as I found out, with dealing with humans and accepting criticism, for example."

I wonder, has Mr Domscheit-Berg been taking lessons from David Marr?

WikiLeaks' Assange 'paranoid and autocratic'
Lateline.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 16/02/2011
Reporter: Tony Jones
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3140943.htm

Some quotes from the archives

Leadership is always a lonely race. Anyone honest about their reflections on that reaches the same conclusion....I’ve always just been a person who believes in rowing his own race, that is, doing what you believe to be the right thing, doing it with vigour, doing it with conviction and doing it with determination.
- former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd quoted by David Marr in "Power trip: the political journey of Kevin Rudd." Quarterly Essay. Number 38, p. 40.



Kevin has worked hard at becoming normal. He’s come close but I don’t think he’ll ever quite get there, But I don’t think you want a Prime Minister to be normal, do you?
– Wayne Goss, former Premier of Queensland, quoted in the book Inside Kevin07: The people, the plan, the prize. by Christine Jackman.



How could you say someone like us is boring?
- Kevin Rudd being interviewed by Rove McManus on the Rove TV show, September 2008

Paul Howes' book not really a disappointment, because I didn't expect much anyway

I have been reading the recent book by the "faceless man" Paul Howes titled Confessions of a faceless man. Originality is clearly not a trait that defines Mr Howes. This claustrophobic book gives the reader the viewpoint of Howes during the 2010 election, and it is a visit to a world of power, but also a limited and personal world. Mr Howes displays a lack of self awareness and social awareness in that he does not seem to realise that the whole world doesn't care who he likes or doesn't like, and doesn't attach the same importance to social ties and group membership that he does.

This book has done nothing to dispel my fear that petty personal antipathies were an important factor behind what they did to Rudd. Howes makes quite a few unsupported derogatory claims about Rudd's character in this book. It is alarming that Howes has shown in this book how willing he has been to assume that Rudd was the source of the infamous leaks that damaged the ALP during the 2010 election, assuming the worst about a man. I have found no account in the book of Howes attempting himself to investigate the truth of this matter.

I find it interesting that a man who has assumed so many adult responsibilities at an early age (Howes is a married father of three and the head of a major union at the age of 30, and left home to live independently at the end of year 9, forsaking an education), is so fond of using the term "grown-ups" when taking a snipe at people. I think Mr Howes might have unresolved issues of some type with early origins, and I wonder how much trouble those issues might have caused for everyone to date. Howes is an unusual man - every bit as unusual as Rudd, and I am surely not the only person who has noticed that Howes and Rudd seem to be opposite types - Rudd the socially clunky academic star and Howes with his street-smarts but no education. David Marr should have done a job on Mr Howes, but who would bother to write an essay about a faceless man?

I think it is also interesting that Howes tends to favour using terms such as "bizarre", "odd" and "strange" in reference to things or utterances of others that seem to be mistakes or questionable. Howes seems to be a man who would rather drop innuendos about possible mental heath issues of others instead of stating plain judgements. In this book Howes shows his herd-mentality with his fondness of the mental health diagnosis du jour of Australian commentators - he speculates about narcissistic personality disorder in relation to Latham and Rudd. This says so much more about Howes than it does about anyone else.

I find it interesting how little there is written in this book about those troublesome people beyond the world of the ALP, the media and the union movement. I'm talking about voters, the public. They don't get much of a mention in this book, except for references to undefined people who sent Howes abusive messages through his Twitter account. Howes' term for Twitter is "the shit room" for an obvious reason. I've read much of the book but I still haven't found any bit where Howes tackles the big question about Rudd's relationship with the ALP - the question of why the voters were so very willing to vote for Rudd in 2007, but in other actual elections haven't shown nearly the same electoral enthusiasm for the rest of the ALP for a very long time. Mr Howes seems to be so very wrapped up in his tight and collegiate but limited and sharply defined world that he has forgotten that the business of political parties is courting and winning votes, and then governing.

Another thing that is noticeably almost absent from this book is mention of the other "faceless men". I find it hard to believe that this absence is a reflection of the reality of the time that was supposedly chronicled in this election diary. I guess Howes did not want to paint a picture that looks like an evil conspiracy.

In December 2010 the Australian newspaper reported that Paul Howes is one of the protected sources / US embassy informants named in WikiLeaks cable number 08CANBERRA609. Mention of this matter is yet another thing that is absent from this book, but this is hardly surprising.

I'm sure many people reading this book will be wondering how the people in politics and the media described in this book get anything much done while they spend so much time drinking or recovering from drinking, but I'm sure this will surprise no one, considering the long association that the ALP has had with alcoholics and drunken bonding. It's another world.

If you are really interested in Paul Howes this book is worth a read, because it gives an insight into the psychology of the man, who is probably typical of other ALP figures. Howes' passion for defending the rights of refugees is displayed prominently in this book. But if you are hoping to discover any major new information about the events of June 2010, you will be disappointed.