Former PM Kevin Rudd quits federal politics [View all]

[Matilda]

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has announced his retirement from politics in an emotional speech to Parliament, adding "it really is time for me to zip".

Mr Rudd, who has served as the Member for Griffith since 1998, says he will leave Parliament at the end of this week.

"This has been the product of much soul-searching for us as a family over the last few months," he said, fighting back tears.

"But for me, my family is everything, always has been, always will be, which is why I will not be continuing as a member of this parliament beyond this week."


Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/

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Personally, I always admired Rudd, in that I think he did have a vision that stretched beyond the usual three-year attention span of most politicians. There's no doubt that he was - is - something of a control freak, who tried to micro-manage every department, but I believe that knifing him was not only tragic for him but for Labor as a party. To this day, it remains divided, and the wounds haven't healed.

I think he's been treated shabbily by Labor - he saved, by all estimates, at least 15 seats for them in the last election, yet he's been shunned by the party and left idle on the shadow backbench. Is this his payback? Because his seat will now go to the LNP Coalition, and Labor will be down one more seat.

Will his friend Julie Bishop push for a position for him in the UN? She once said that the Coalition would have a job for Kevin when they took power again. But that might be reckoning without one Tony Abbott, who's shown himself to be spiteful and vindictive in victory.

Vale, Kevin.