http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politic ... 5892390144
Kevin Rudd's trusted insider: Play School actor Rhys Muldoon
IN the final months of his leadership, Kevin Rudd cut himself off. He wouldn't listen to senior factional leaders and took advice from only his office and closest confidants.
While even ministers struggled for face time with the prime minister, there was one man, one trusted adviser, who could break through the self-imposed cordon - actor, former Play School presenter and part-time author Rhys Muldoon.
Labor sources claim Muldoon was there earlier this year when party hardheads were trying to collar Rudd on his preparations for the health debate.
He was there on the final tumultuous day of Rudd's reign, invited to Parliament House by the prime minister himself.
And he was there for Rudd's final evening in The Lodge, discussing what went wrong. Muldoon was one of the big names at Rudd's 2020 Summit just months into his reign in April 2008, going to church with the new prime minister on the eve of the event. And, although he lived in Sydney's eastern suburbs, the actor was often seen in the prime minister's office in Canberra.