In ever so nice a fashion, Kevin Rudd put the knife into Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan last night and gave it a little twist for good measure. Behind the frankness of the Rudd explanation as to why he was wrong not to press ahead with his emissions trading scheme when Prime Minister was the disclosure that some of his Cabinet colleagues wanted him not just to postpone action but to abandon the whole idea altogether. As leaked cabinet documents have suggested it was his then deputy Julia Gillard, along with Treasurer Wayne Swan, who urged the shelving of emissions trading there was not much doubt about who Mr Rudd was referring to with his comments.

It certainly made for an entertaining QandA program. The ABC’s Tony Jones could scarcely believe his luck as the now Foreign Minister gave the audience a rare example of political straight talking.