Malcolm Turnbull Just Refused To Back Kevin Rudd As UN Secretary-General And Wouldn’t Say Why
Talk about being ratfucked.
Kevin Rudd’s ambition to lead the world as Secretary-General of the United Nations have been smashed to bits after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull refused to nominate him for the position on behalf of Australia. Rudd had been canvassing international support for the role for months but only formally requested Australia’s support recently.
The issue of whether or not to nominate Rudd had snowballed into a significant political headache for the Prime Minister. His Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, reportedly wanted Australia to nominate Rudd but the right-wing of the Liberal Party was less keen on the idea. After Cabinet hand-balled the issue to Turnbull and made it a “captain’s call”, the Prime Minister ultimately decided against nominating Rudd but wouldn’t explain why.
“This decision has got nothing to do with Mr Rudd’s party. This is a judgement about Mr Rudd’s suitability for that particular role,” Turnbull said today. “There are many examples of Coalition governments supporting former Labor politicians in important positions. I can assure you that this is not a partisan issue. This is about Mr Rudd’s suitability for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations.”
You got rolled, son.
Turnbull refused to expand on why exactly he had turned down Rudd’s request. “The threshold question here is do we believe the would be nominee is well suited for that position,” he said. “My judgement is that Mr Rudd is not. I’ve explained to him the reasons why and I won’t go into that today.”
He also claimed that his decision to not nominate Rudd was not a “disparagement”. Except it kind of is. It’s a pretty brutal put down, especially when nominating someone for the position of UN Secretary-General isn’t the same thing as actually endorsing them.
I know everyone thinks Kevin Rudd’s a prick, but gee Malcolm, burn much? #auspol
— Andrew Hogan (@HoganNerd) July 29, 2016
In addition to Rudd, there are 12 official candidates for the UN position, including former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke. A recent poll found that twice as many Australians backed Clark for the position compared to those who supported Rudd.
Two-thirds of the candidates for the top job are from Eastern Europe, reflecting a general international consensus that it’s Eastern Europe’s “turn” to run the UN. Back in April Rudd joked that he had little chance of securing international support given his lack of an Eastern Europe background. “My name is not Ruddovich,” he said, weirdly sounding like he was cut up about not making it into the Bulgarian national quidditch team.
After first being shafted by his own party, then the people of Australia, Rudd is probably used to be politically done over. But being rejected by the guy who crashed his first attempt at the leadership because of a dodgy ute? That’s gotta sting.