Kevin Rudd was always hands on. No detail was too small for his expert gaze.

And that even extended to ensuring the story of his government had his input. When actor Rhys Muldoon, a close friend of Rudd's, wrote a lengthy feature in 2012 on Rudd’s last days as PM, the piece got some last-minute vetting. The evidence points directly to Rudd’s role in the changes.

The then prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2009. Credit:Luis Enrique

Muldoon had written, in a piece for The Monthly, that ‘‘some’’ journalists were so grief stricken at the departure of Rudd in 2010 they cried. That was changed, with some last-minute help, to ‘‘many’’ journalists cried.

A document outlining the Rudd edits has been leaked to Fairfax Media and they range from the smallest detail around spellings of names to those that dealt directly with Rudd’s time as PM from 2007 to 2010.