Ex-minister unloads on Rudd govt

SAMANTHA MAIDEN From: The Sunday Telegraph April 24, 2011 12:00AM

ONE of the Labor Government's "gang of four" key ministers has taken a swipe at his former colleagues and reveals that one of 's grand election promises - a powerful business advisory panel - was pure fantasy that never existed.

In the first memoir written by a insider, former finance minister also describes Ms Gillard's "moving forward" election slogan as setting "new records for banality".

Mr Tanner, who quit politics on the same day that became Prime Minister, said the 2010 election campaign was the "worst in living memory", with "banal slogans, robotic delivery, and trivial policy announcement deployed by both the major parties".

He also says Ms Gillard has dyed her hair red for years to help build her personal brand.

"It makes her more noticeable. She has registered as an individual personality in the sideshow."

Delivering a damning assessment of politics, Mr Tanner largely blames the media in a new book, Sideshow, for descending into "info-tainment" rather than serious policy analysis.

Mr Tanner, who was one of the "gang of four" ministers who ran Labor's policy agenda, also writes that the media failed to twig that the government did nothing for two-and-a-half years to deliver on a key economic pledge by Mr Rudd in 2008 to boost national savings.

In 2007, when Mr Rudd announced the business advisory panel headed by the respected Sir Rod Eddington, The Australian "splashed the story on its front page, complete with a big photo of a smiling Rudd and shadow treasurer Wayne Swan"."Did anything actually happen?" Mr Tanner writes.

The truth, he explains, was that "Kevin Rudd may have announced the creation of the advisory panel but ultimately it was never established".

"In spite of occasional cursory inquiries from journalists about when the names of its members would be announced, no one ever worked out that it was a chimera. A potentially highly embarrassing story was never written," Mr Tanner said.

The Sunday Telegraph did not obtain an embargoed copy of the book, released this week, but was briefed on key extracts, and understands Mr Tanner:

DENIES he was the source of damaging cabinet leaks that derailed the ALP's election campaign after it was claimed that Ms Gillard opposed an aged pension increase, accusing the media of "collective psychosis" after he refused to rule himself in or out as the culprit.

ATTACKS Ms Gillard's 2010 election slogan of Moving Forward as a clich aac that would have irritated anyone who had spent time with second tier business executives.

REVEALS the ABC edited out of a Lateline interview a stumble when he was asked by Leigh Sales to describe Mr Rudd in one word and replied, "Nasty." Mr Tanner quips his gaffe was edited out because he thought he was talking about ..

His book is believed to pull its punches on the ETS debate, following Mr Rudd's claims that Ms Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan were in favour of dumping it while Mr Tanner and Senator were against.