Kevin Rudd on Sunrise: WHO and Malcolm Turnbull's memoir

[video width="640" height="360" mp4="https://kevinrudd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sunrise-Interview-WHO-and-Malcolm-Turnbulls-memoir.mp4"][/video]E&OE TRANSCRIPTTELEVISION INTERVIEWSUNRISE, SEVEN NETWORK20 APRIL 2020Topics: World Health Organisation, media regulation, Turnbull's memoirDAVID KOCH: Kevin, good morning to you. I had actually forgotten you led a review into fixing the WHO back in 2016. Remind me: were your recommendations taken on board?KEVIN RUDD: No, they weren’t, but there were other reviews of the World Health Organisation coming out of the Ebola crisis. You may remember that one, Kochie, around about 2015. So the recommendations were put forward. How do you enhance the powers and the resources of the WHO? But frankly the international community – that is, governments around the world – just said ‘eh, crisis gone, don’t have to worry about it’. So we are where we are.KOCH: Yeah, they’re regretting that now, aren’t they? One of your recommendations was an independent voice for WHO representatives at a country level. Now, would China ever accept that?RUDD: Well, we never pushed it. That’s the problem with the international community and the WHO governing arrangements. You see, you don’t want to interfere with people’s domestic health arrangements every day. But when you’ve got an epidemic, when you’ve got a pandemic, the bottom line is: all that needs to be pushed to one side because as we’ve seen around the world, everyone’s lives and everyone’s economies are then at risk. So I think it’s something that should be pushed forward so that if you’ve got a WHO representative in Washington or Beijing or wherever they can speak without fear as an independent voice and say ‘this must be done’.KOCH: While we’ve got you, Malcolm Turnbull’s new book is officially out today. The publisher has accused the Prime Minister’s Office of distributing pirated copies ahead of time. What do you think of Malcolm’s book? Is it just continuing the political memoir backstabbing?RUDD: Well, you know, for me, I find it quite entertaining today, interesting anyway, that you’ve just been having this debate with Josh Frydenberg about the giant social media companies stealing the intellectual property of others, namely companies like News Corporation. Well, News Corporation last week were publishing with gay abandon stolen intellectual property from Malcolm Turnbull which was leaked. Anyway, leave that to one side, the core thing I reckon about Turnbull’s memoir is a serious reflection on the power actually of the Murdoch media. That’s the one thing I take seriously out of it because, it doesn’t matter where you come from, Murdoch runs 70 per cent of the print readership in this country. In my state of Queensland, virtually every Queensland newspaper is owned by Murdoch. So we need to strengthen the guidelines, strengthen the powers, of people who regulate the print media. You broadcast people have got pretty powerful regulators already – not for print.KOCH: OK, Kevin Rudd, thanks for joining us.