Killing Season reopens Rudd, Gillard feud
Julia Gillard has identified the month-long stand-off with asylum seekers refusing to disembark an Australian Customs ship at an Indonesian port as when the rot set in on Kevin Rudd's first stint as prime minister.
Ms Gillard, who toppled Mr Rudd in June 2010 only to be unseated by him in 2013, says the Oceanic Viking stand-off in October 2009 "skewered" the Rudd government, making it look like it was being held hostage by 78 Sri Lankans.
In ABC TV's three-part series on the Labor years, The Killing Season, it is revealed that Mr Rudd asked then Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take the asylum seekers without first consulting relevant ministers or the National Security Committee.
Ms Gillard says: "More than anything else, the Oceanic Viking told me where our decision-making processes had degenerated to."
The Killing Season's first episode, which airs on Tuesday, documents the collapse of trust between Mr Rudd and his former deputy.
Ms Gillard says that even before Mr Rudd became prime minister they had bitter disputes, recalling a "bullying encounter" when he "physically stepped into my space".
"It was a menacing, angry performance," she says.
Mr Rudd says the story is utterly false.
The two are also at odds about why the so-called "Gang of Four" - Mr Rudd, Ms Gillard, Wayne Swan and Lindsay Tanner - continued to meet after the global financial crisis had passed.
Ms Gillard blames Mr Rudd, saying he preferred a centralised command and control structure, while Mr Rudd dismisses this as the "most creative reconstruction of a political memory I've ever heard", adding that Ms Gillard liked the "relative secrecy" of a smaller ministerial group.
Mr Rudd's handling of the GFC wins plaudits from former British PM Gordon Brown and ex-US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.
In the program, Mr Rudd recalls the dilemma he faced when considering whether to issue a Government guarantee on all bank deposits.
"This was a really big decision," he says. "If you get it right, no one will thank you.
