By DANI ROTHWELL
The Killing Season
ABC1 and iview
ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson has aired the Rudd-Gillard era’s dirty laundry in The Killing Season.
Cue Tony Abbott’s “Thankyou to the ABC. I don’t normally say thankyou to the ABC, but I have to say Australia is indebted to you on this instance.”
Normal service was resumed a week later when the Q&A terrorism controversy saw the PM once again attacking the ABC.
The Killing Season leads the audience through the complications and hardships involved in Labor’s most recent defining battle: Rudd v Gillard.
As someone whose political interest started with Kevin 07, this mini-series seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to learn more about both sides.
I was right, but sometimes you can learn too much.
The things we only hear of on the outside like the union control, the factions and the powerbrokers with their blocs were all on display in The Killing Season.
Ferguson has created a visually beautiful documentary series that somehow convinced the Labor Party to air its closet stuffed full of skeletons.
It features revelations like first-time MPs jumping on the bandwagon too early and the factional undermining of two prime ministers.
The inner workings of the Labor Party are shown at their absolute worst, warts and all.
“You have two people talking about the same events … telling completely different stories,” Ferguson said about the interviews.
The main themes in these interviews are Rudd’s sense of betrayal and Gillard’s sense of duty to her party.
Some key moments for Gillard include admitting to giving Rudd false hope and the legislative heaviness of her three years as prime minister.
Other points of interest include Rudd alerting the world’s leading economies to the threat of a global financial crisis, as well as world leaders leaving Copenhagen with the Copenhagen Declaration; an achievement that ex-UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown accredits to Rudd.
There’s even an answer about Rudd’s involvement in the damaging leaks against the Gillard Government.
“It’s entirely possible,” Rudd said about whether he had leaked.
It is fascinating television for political junkies clearly illustrating the killing of two prime ministers and maybe the hopes of the Labor Party at the next election.
– Dani Rothwell
