Part one of the ABC’s documentary series The Killing Season, exploring the poisonous relationship between former Labor Prime Ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, airs next Tuesday, and the public broadcaster must be thanking its lucky stars, because there is already a ratings-boosting controversy in the works.
In the first episode, Gillard accuses Rudd of being overly aggressive during the party’s time in opposition. She says that he was always “very anxious to strut his stuff” in parliament, and claims that, after a tactics meeting did not go his way, “he very physically stepped into my space, it was a bullying encounter, it was a, you know, menacing, angry performance”.
Rudd refutes this claim, calling it “utterly false” and saying that he never had so much as an argument with his “loyal deputy” Gillard, “including on the night that she [marched] into the office to announce the coup. I said to her repeatedly but Julia you are good person, why are you doing this?”
Rudd goes on to say that he didn’t believe Gillard would challenge him for the leadership until it actually happened, and insists that if she’d only waited, “what I wanted to happen longer term was for Julia to replace me as Australia’s first female prime minister”.
Below is a preview for the documentary. We are beyond excited for the Mean Girls shenanigans to come:
via The Age
Photo: Scott Barbour via Getty Images
Photo: Scott Barbour via Getty Images
