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Former prime minister Kevin Rudd seems to be enjoying life after public office. After all, it’s given him the freedom to do what he loves to do more than almost anything else: talk.
Rudd likes to blather. Ezra Klein, the high-profile podcast host at The New York Times, learnt this recently when he had Rudd on his show to talk about Xi Jinping, the Chinese president’s ambitions and his place in the arc of Chinese history. Klein spent at least one hour and 44 minutes being unequivocally out-talked.
Now, unconstrained by the decorum required of his former US ambassadorial posting, it would seem Rudd is set to return to the local speaking circuit next month, when he trades the White House for Kingsford Juniors to address the Labor faithful.
The former prime minister was billed as the headline act at this year’s Lionel Bowen Dinner in invitations sent out to Labor members and prospective donors on Monday morning. In years past, the dinner has heard from Foreign Minister Penny Wong and ACTU secretary Sally McManus.
VIP tables are going for $2400 a pop, with tables of 10 priced at $1200. For $120 a person, you get a two-course dinner and drinks.
Rudd, more than the others to descend on Anzac Parade before him, must be on tenterhooks over the prospect of a captive audience. The Mandarin speaker, who now leads the Asia Society foreign policy think tank, has already made news this month with his concerns over Xi underestimating the US with a move to take Taiwan in 2028.
The Wintle Room is a long way from Washington, DC, but we wouldn’t underestimate Rudd’s resolve to try to grab headlines once more.
Karl’s latest roast
Karl Stefanovic may not have many allies left in the C-suites of Australia’s mainstream media companies.
But we’re pleased to report the former Today show co-host, perhaps best known now for the publicity services he rendered for far-right freak show Tommy Robinson last month, may not be entirely friendless.
The word is Stefanovic was seen walking out of the butcher in Castlecrag on Friday afternoon clutching what one CBD spy described as a quantity of meat so large it could only have been purchased to share. At first, our spy wasn’t 100 per cent certain it was the former Today show co-host.
But as the man thought to be Stefanovic was walking out, our spy said the butcher asked him to tell the shopkeeper how the lamb went. The man then responded in a way we suspect only Stefanovic would: “You know me,” the man said, according to the CBD spy. “I tell it how it is.”
If that wasn’t enough for our spy, the man was then seen bundling himself and his meat into a bronze-coloured HiLux Rogue that carries the logo of his podcast, The Karl Stefanovic Show.
Stefanovic didn’t get back to us by deadline to confirm or deny.
Farewell, human headline
A who’s who of Melbourne’s media, political and entertainment worlds turned out to farewell human headline Derryn Hinch on Monday, with singer and radio presenter Denis Walter, entertainer Rhonda Burchmore, former Labor MP Frank McGuire, media executive Peter Blunden, journalist Ray Martin and Hinch’s partner Lynda Stoner among those paying their respects in Port Melbourne.
But the real storytelling began once the official proceedings ended.
The faithful – former staff, colleagues, family and old friends – decamped to the Emerald Hotel in South Melbourne, the same venue that hosted Hinch’s 80th birthday in 2024, where champagne and spring rolls flowed and tales of Hinch grew taller with every round.
One mourner recalled that Hinch, the eternal optimist, bought a Powerball ticket on the night he died, convinced his numbers might finally come up. It was a scoop that remained just out of reach.
But one of the best stories came courtesy of Hinch’s long-time producer Dermot O’Brien. After every speaker at the funeral embraced Hinch’s famous mantra that “you only owe the dead the truth”, O’Brien confessed he’d prepared two versions of his eulogy. Realising the service was being televised, he opted for the more family-friendly edition, leaving guests wondering exactly which stories were destined to remain between Hinch and his maker.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.From our partners
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