By ABC's Barrie Cassidy Friday 26 September 2014

Photo: The Ray Martin interview with Julia Gillard was watched by 1.4 million people. What they saw was tabloid trash. (Supplied)

After the latest burst of prominence, Coalition strategists must know that the fallout from the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd merry-go-round will go around again at one more election campaign, writes Barrie Cassidy.

No matter that Australia is on the cusp of a "humanitarian" war, that a suspected terrorist has been shot dead by police in Melbourne; still, Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd break through for media attention.

Like a ghost ship emerging from the fog, they came into view four years after the initial leadership battle, ready to go again.

Gillard in a prime time interview to promote her book My Story said, "I still, even with the benefit of hindsight, don't see an alternative to what I did that day ... I don't think I had a choice."

She then conceded, "If anything, the reputation I have from that night is one of political brutality."

Then two days later Rudd, in a leaked report on page one of The Australian, describes himself as the victim of "an orgy of unprecedented political violence".

The latest burst of prominence says much about Gillard's lack of judgment and Rudd's now well known modus operandi.

First Gillard, the book and the interview.

The first journalist to review it, The Guardian's Katherine Murphy (who confessed she was just ¾ of the way through it) wrote that the memoir "provides real, detailed, forensic and clinical insight into the government from her central, completely unique vantage point".

The book, she wrote, plunges the reader "into government at a deeper level than most other protagonists of this historical period".

That does seem to be a fair analysis of the majority of the book. Most of it is devoted to policy battles and intriguing personal observations. That's all good.

However, if the sales are very good, perhaps 50,000 people or more will read it.

The Ray Martin interview on the other hand was watched by 1.2 million people. What they saw was tabloid trash. Most of the conversation was devoted to hair and makeup, the daily routine of a prime minister, misogyny, Kevin Rudd, Alan Jones, Germaine Greer - and Tim; time and again about Tim; how the public was supposed to react to the first bloke being a hairdresser, and why she never married.

Not only did Gillard sign up to that arrangement, but not once during the interview did she object, or even seem annoyed, that three years of running the country was reduced to those periphery topics.

The interview, given its reach, was always going to do more in terms of framing her time in office than the book will ever do. It was a lost opportunity, and a reflection on her judgment.

And now to Rudd and that oh so familiar style.

Gillard might eventually move on but Rudd, as the most aggrieved party, will always look for ways to back his version of history.

In the wake of the Gillard interview, two things happened in much the same way as they always do.  Rudd gave a considered and brief public response. At the same time, ever so mysteriously, a far more detailed and poisonous critique is leaked; not a direct response to the interview mind you, but part of a secret submission that he gave to Labor's 2010 election review; a submission that had remained secret for three years or more, only to surface just as Gillard's book is released.

Even the public statement released to news.com.au was resplendent with political cant. He rejected the memoir as fiction, and "consistent with the past, Mr Rudd has no substantive comment to make". And then, consistent with his past, he went on to make substantive comments: "The Australian people have long reached their own conclusions about Ms Gillard's relationship with the truth - from the coup to the carbon tax (and) ... trying to dress up personal political ambitions as some higher purpose for the party and the government."

The leaked submission went even further, talking of her leadership being crippled by "a stench of illegitimacy" and describing her 2010 election campaign as "absurdity loaded upon absurdity".

And of course the submission included the persecution theory: that he had been the victim of an "orgy of unprecedented political violence".

There was nothing unprecedented about it. Prime ministers have been cut down in office before and they will be again. Bob Hawke was voted down by his party room after having won four elections. And his removal was no more an act of "political violence" than most other leadership challenges over the years.

The coup against Rudd was different only to the extent that it was driven largely by backbenchers. The ministers - most of them - were kept in the dark. That's because, according to the backbenchers, they were actually part of the problem; too subservient to the leader; choosing humiliation to confrontation.

The public might not always like it, but the leadership of the major parties is in the hands of the elected MPs in the party room. When Gillard finally confronted Rudd, the support for her came in a torrent. Never before had the numbers tumbled so quickly in a leadership challenge.

The best judges on the night figured that if it had gone to a party room vote, Gillard would have picked up 80 of the 112 eligible votes. That's why Rudd did not allow it to go to a ballot.

Gillard is entitled to write a book. You could even argue she had an obligation to do so. Rudd will no doubt in time, closer to the next election, write his own. They are both entitled to promote those books.

Labor for its part will be hoping they are the acceptable boundaries and the long running feud won't go beyond that. That, however, is doubtful. Gillard might eventually move on but Rudd, as the most aggrieved party, will always look for ways to back his version of history.

After this week Coalition strategists must know that the fallout from the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd merry-go-round will go around again at one more election campaign.

Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of the ABC program Insiders. View his full profile here.

There's still life in the Rudd-Gillard stoush - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)