By Rich Bowden:

Well bye then. While its possible there are not that many Australians who will miss Kevin Rudd after his dramatic exit from the prime ministership today, none, except perhaps mining executives and the hard right of the Liberal party, could be anything other than moved by the man’s teary press conference after being rolled, the first first term Labor prime minister to have been treated in such a manner.

Pausing on numerous occasions to gather himself,  his family beside him for support, Rudd tearily and it seemed wearily read through the list of his government’s achievements, thanked his staff and reflected briefly on what his two years as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister had meant to him. See full transcript of the speech here.

He hadn’t contested the leadership spill called by former deputy Julia Gillard, allegedly because the numbers were so embarrasingly against the former PM that to contest would have been foolhardy. Rudd fell on his sword, departed from the caucus room with a few parting words, addressed the press corps and weepingly sailed into the sunset.

But how had it come to all this? The Labor hero who put an end to the Howard era promised much in the way of progressive reforms, started well but ultimately delivered little. At least that’s the official press line anyway. Rudd enjoyed record approval ratings from the Australian people until April this year when the Australian media turned on the man who had led the country away from economic calamity during the global financial crisis, apologised to the stolen generation and was about to deliver major health reform.

It appeared as if the press had tired of Kevin Rudd and his bureaucratic nature and under pressure from the poor publicity the opinion polls soon nosedived. A vast groupthink seemed to to grip the mainstream media and the Australian people followed suit as reflected in the polls.

After poll after poll showed Labor more and more on the nose with Australian voters, the factional warlords within the party, all of whom had supported Rudd during the good times, quickly withdrew their loyalty once it was clear Rudd had become an electoral liability. It was time for a factional payback.

Rudd had entered the job as prime minister with the message that he was not a fan of the faction system within the Labor party and would work actively to dismantle it. He said the age-old system of factional warlords sharing out ministries and doling out favours to their preferred candidates was over and that he, as prime minister, would pick the team he wanted.

While this didn’t exactly eventuate, and everyone knew it was a matter of time before the factional bosses resumed control, Rudd did ask for, and was granted, a degree of power not previously given to a Labor prime minister.

It was 2007 though and Rudd had just vanquished the hated Howard and the factional bosses were prepared to wait their time. Nearly three years later the opportunity arrived and revenge was swift, so swift in fact that when the news broke on the ABC, Senator John Faulkner, Defence Minister and key supporter of Rudd confessed to having no knowledge of the coup in an interview with the 7.30 Report’s Kerry O’Brien.

The ABC names David Feeney, Mark Arbib, Bill Shorten, Bill Ludwig, Karl Bitar, and Don Farrell as the key shadow men at the centre of the knifing and reveals little love lost between the faction kings and Rudd.

One faction leader told the ABC’s political reporter Chris Uhlmann, “This crypto-fascist [Rudd] made no effort to build a base in the party. Now that his only faction, Newspoll, has deserted him he is gone.”

One of the key factors in the dethronement was the all powerful NSW Right swinging its support behind Julia Gillard according to the World Today.

The irony is the NSW Right has thrown its full support behind Julia Gillard, a member of the party’s Left faction.

Go figure!

Tags: 7.30 report, australian politics, julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, labor factions, labor leadership, Tony Abbott