Power Trip: Correspondence

Review(s) of: As David Marr demonstrates in his 'Quarterly Essay', Kevin Rudd does not answer to the same gods as ordinary humans. Marr's subject was Rudd's atypical relationship with power, but we can learn as much from the former prime minister's relinquishment of power as we did from watching him exert it. The same themes dominate: Utter indefatigability. Physical stamina. A certain robotic imperviousness to the reality at hand. A calm conviction, on the part of the subject, of his natural centrality to events. In his own way, Kevin Rudd created in the minds of his MPs the same impression that Coalition MPs had of Malcolm Turnbull towards the end of his leadership: that their leader put his own interests before those of the party as a whole.