/ 14 April 2008

The Rudd stuff

As Lionel Shriver once wrote, we need to talk about Kevin. It’s not as though Australia’s prime minister is likely to shoot up the school gym. But if hypercritical domestic media are to be believed, Kevin Rudd has a lot of personal problems.

Policy wonk, nerdy control freak, bureaucrat-in-chief, charisma-free bore and junketeer are some of the kinder epithets the whingeing Aussies have applied to the man who last November ousted the long-serving conservative John Howard. Rudd has been forced to deny he is a robot, defend his ”quirky” sense of humour, and rebut claims that he is a United States lackey after he jokingly saluted George W Bush.

On substantial matters of policy, Rudd lacks vision, a crusty editorial in The Australian complained last week. ”At this point in his premiership, [he] appears to be most interested in perpetuating what seems to be a love-in of convenience with his followers. His current world trip has included a lot of meetings designed to make Mr Rudd look important on the television news.”

Judging by his performance in London and at Nato’s Bucharest summit, that verdict — and the ad hominem attacks — seem off-target. Rudd agreed a series of measures to combat climate change, advance the millennium development goals and reform international financial institutions when he met Gordon Brown at Downing Street.

While fulfilling his promise to pull out of Iraq, Rudd has kept the Bush administration sweet by recommitting Australian troops to Afghanistan. And as he began a visit to Beijing this week, the Mandarin­-speaking prime minister’s claim to be one of the West’s better informed China interlocutors is considerable.

Speaking at the London School of Economics Rudd acknowledged Australia’s growing dependency on China’s markets, where demand for iron ore, uranium, coal and wheat is fuelling the 17th consecutive year of Australian growth, budget surpluses and rising incomes. Concerns have been raised over Chinese moves to buy controlling stakes in Australian companies.

Traditional allies and trade partners such as Japan worry that developing Canberra-Beijing ties presage a political and strategic shift. Rudd visited Washington but his current world tour does not include Japan. ”We favour increased regional cooperation but Rudd has got his priorities wrong,” a senior Japanese diplomat said.

Rudd said China’s growing economic power and enhanced global security role, plus its importance in effective environmental protection, meant closer political links with Beijing were essential. ”I will do whatever I can to get China on the bus in defence of common interests such as climate change.”

But that did not mean he would dodge sensitive human rights issues such as the pre-Olympics crackdown in Tibet. ”It’s a very complex business, dealing with China on these issues. Millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. But there’s still a very real problem with human rights.”

He would be urging China’s representatives to restart a dialogue with the Dalai Lama while stressing that governments round the world continue to recognise Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, he said. ”It will be a very difficult set of discussions.”

Rudd has coined a monkish phrase to describe his approach to China and other foreign policy issues: creative middle-power diplomacy. He stresses the ongoing importance to Australia of the US alliance, multilateralism via the United Nations and the European Union, and ”comprehensive engagement” with Asia and the Pacific.

Contrary to what his detractors say, this does not suggest a lack of strategic vision. Rudd the robot’s problem may lie elsewhere. For the Australian right, at least, this bloke is way too brainy. — Â