Cabinet has decided the prime minister can make the call on whether or not to endorse the former Labor prime minister to lead the United Nations

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Cabinet has resolved to let the prime minister make a captain’s pick on whether to nominate Kevin Rudd for the role of United Nations secretary general.



The prime minister allowed colleagues to vent their views about the former Labor prime minister’s suitability for the role in cabinet during a lengthy meeting in Canberra on Thursday. It is understood Malcolm Turnbull did not express a view during the meeting.

Cabinet gave Turnbull the authority to make the final call on Rudd’s candidacy.

Nomination is a necessary prerequisite for Rudd’s bid. Turnbull is expected to speak to Rudd this evening to convey his view before announcing the decision in the morning.

Australians back Helen Clark over Kevin Rudd for United Nations role – poll Read more

After the cabinet meeting Turnbull told a press conference “we’ve considered this issue and I owe Mr Rudd a telephone call before I say anything more about it publicly”.

Rudd has faced stiff opposition, with a number of conservative cabinet ministers including the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, and the treasurer, Scott Morrison, speaking out against his suitability for the job.

But Rudd’s candidacy has been supported by the foreign minister Julie Bishop, who has proposed nominating Rudd without endorsing him for the job.

On Thursday Dutton told 2GB radio that he hadn’t “been contacted by anybody saying that they think it is a good idea for Mr Rudd to become the UN secretary general”.

Dutton said people had made their own assessment of Rudd including “those that know him best”. He said his former Labor colleagues had been “very publicly boisterous” in comments about him, in reference to fierce criticism of Rudd before his second stint as prime minister.

While Bishop had claimed that nominating Rudd would not amount to endorsement of his bid, on Thursday morning Malcolm Turnbull conceded that a nomination would amount to indirectly supporting him.

Speaking before the decision, the acting opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek, said: “I don’t think I can imagine anyone that is better qualified for this job than Kevin Rudd.”

Plibersek said Rudd was a distinguished former prime minister, a very successful foreign minister, diplomat with decades of experience, and is an acknowledged expert on China.

“I don’t doubt that he should receive the full support of the Australian government and, frankly, I am mystified that there would even be a proposition that the Australian government is not backing the Australian candidate for such a distinguished position.

Scott Morrison quotes House of Cards to signal opposition to Kevin Rudd’s UN bid Read more

“If the cabinet today decides not to offer its endorsement to Kevin Rudd, it will show that the petty small-minded right wing of the Liberal party have Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop on a short leash.”

Speaking on Sky on Thursday, the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, acknowledged Rudd had shortcomings but said it would be “churlish in the extreme” and small-minded not to nominate him.

“Obviously it is in the national interest to have a former Australian prime minister nominated to lead the United Nations.”

On Tuesday Morrison implied Rudd was unqualified for the role.

On Thursday conservative backbencher Eric Abetz reminded his colleagues in a statement that Rudd’s peers had labelled him narcissistic, a micromanager and an impulsive control freak.

“Any cursory glance at Mr Rudd’s temperament and capacity would show Mr Rudd is poorly qualified for this role and if Australia were to inflict Kevin Rudd on the United Nations it would be a mistake,” Abetz said.

The chief executive of World Vision, Tim Costello, spoke in Rudd’s favour on Thursday night.

“During government, Rudd showed he is an internationalist,” Costello said. “People will say he was a flawed person but Doc Evatt was a flawed person and he was midwife for the birth of United Nations”.

Costello said when Rudd came to power, the international aid budget amounted to 0.28% of gross national income (GNI) when the rest of the world was moving toward 0.7%. Rudd had a target for the aid budget of 0.5% and increased it to 0.34% before losing the leadership.

Costello said Rudd was “solidly committed” to millenium development goals and understood aid was critical.

“Kevin really believes foreign aid is critical,” Costello said. “It is 0.21% now and that has literally cost thousands of lives. It’s been really terrible because you can cut aid by executive order so it is like the ATM of budget savings.

“In the first Hockey budget, 20% of the spending savings came from aid. Kevin, though, understands the benefits of aid and the development sector as a whole can see that.”