Kevin Rudd’s “angry heart” is the subject of an extraordinary new essay on the making of the Prime Minister, which asks what drives his ambition and comes to a startling conclusion: that he is “a politician with rage at his core”.
Written by journalist, biographer and leading left-wing intellectual David Marr, Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd, traces the rise of Mr Rudd from his childhood to his ascension to former Queensland premier Wayne Goss’s right-hand man, his years as a diplomat and his lonely rise through Labor ranks with few friends in caucus.
“Millions of words have been written about him since he emerged from the Labor pack half-a-dozen years ago, but Rudd remains hidden in full view,” writes Marr.
The devastating conclusion of Power Trip, following a barefoot stroll on a beach at Mackay in Queensland with the Prime Minister and the revealing confrontation that follows, is that the secret of his success is his incredible emotional resilience forged in a difficult childhood, but with an angry core.
It’s an anger documented first in the Marr essay during the dark days of the Prime Minister’s attempts to broker a deal on climate change at last year’s Copenhagen talks.
“Those Chinese f . . kers are trying to rat-f . . k us,” Rudd told journalists and aides, according to Marr.
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