The former ambassador to the US Dennis Richardson has accused some presenters at Sky News Australia of running a campaign to undermine the former prime minister Kevin Rudd and end his tenure as the country’s top diplomat to the US.
Richardson launched the broadside at unnamed program hosts on the News Corp-owned network, accusing them of trying to dictate who should represent Australia abroad.
“Clearly what is unfolding here is an effort to make Rudd’s life untenable,” Richardson told Guardian Australia on Thursday. He said it appeared to him that their intention was “nothing short of the removal of the Australian ambassador to Washington”.
Richardson said it appeared that there was an effort to create a “new story”.
“The story is what’s going on here, and why,” he said.
The former ambassador, who has also served as secretary of both the defence and foreign affairs departments and head of Asio, said the attention on Rudd’s past remarks about president-elect Donald Trump – which included calling him “a village idiot” and “not a leading intellectual force” – had not caused irreparable damage. Richardson insisted the government should not withdraw him.
“It simply creates a challenge,” he said. “Who’s going to blink? How would the [Australian] government look if Kevin Rudd was taken out of Washington tomorrow? We would look like the most second-rate country going.”
The former ambassador said Rudd had been among many who had criticised Trump – including his vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, and the incoming secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
“Why singular attention should be given to what the Australian ambassador to Washington said is as a deliberate campaign,” Richardson said, adding that the rest of the Australian media “should be calling it out”.
“Are we going to allow certain presenters on Sky News to determine who is the Australian ambassador to Washington? Or are we going to say ‘we know what Rudd has said in the past, we know what the vice-president-elect has said, we know what the incoming secretary of state has said.
“What the hell is your agenda? Are you seeking to report the news or make the news?”
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A spokesperson for Sky News Australia declined to comment.
The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull levelled similar criticisms at News Corp in Nine newspapers on Thursday, alleging it was “running a vendetta” because Rudd had campaigned for a royal commission into the Murdoch media empire – a call Turnbull also supported.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, sharpened his rhetoric around Rudd’s position on Thursday.
“This was a captain’s call, as we know, from Prime Minister Albanese,” Dutton said. “I guess the difficulty that the prime minister’s in at the moment is that if he sacks Kevin Rudd, then what does he do with Penny Wong? And if he sacks Penny Wong, what does he do given he’s made his own disparaging remarks about president-elect Trump as well? Look, these are issues for the prime minister.”
The acting prime minister, Richard Marles, said Rudd had been doing great work for Australia, particularly in relation to securing legislative backing for the Aukus submarine deal.
“He worked really closely with members of Congress right across the political spectrum, and I’ve got no doubt that Kevin will ably represent Australia when we see the swearing in of the next Trump administration,” Marles said.
