Mediaboss Marketing

"If guilty, Mr Rudd would not have been the first to use the word "childless" as an insult". Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Amid the bitterness and brutal language of Labor's leadership brawl, one accusation stood out from the rest - one word in particular.

Kevin Rudd, we were told by Labor frontbencher Kate Ellis, had denounced the prime minister as a ''childless, atheist, ex-communist''. He denies it but Ellis is adamant Rudd spoke those words.

If guilty, Mr Rudd would not have been the first to use the word ''childless'' as an insult. Bill Heffernan, George Brandis and Mark Latham spring to mind.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Childless ... Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Photo: Arsineh Houspian

Do these men really believe this is a legitimate weapon in the rough and tumble of political debate? ''Ex-communist'' at least refers to a political ideology, but a colleague's biology or faith should have no place there.

Both Rudd and Tony Abbott have unashamedly used their families and their faith to political advantage. Particularly in recent weeks, when Rudd carted his wife and children around like accessories and they actively campaigned on his behalf.

Not surprising, then, that when Gillard, as the prime minister who only months earlier had toppled Rudd and then foiled Abbott's prime ministerial ambitions, announced she was going to the royal wedding, Abbott scoffed: ''She may not believe in God, the monarchy or marriage but there will be a royal wedding bounce.''

How ironic that these most personal of barbs emanate from Canberra, which has the country's lowest fertility rate; and that Gillard repeatedly attracts them, while sitting opposite her in the house is Julie Bishop, who has no children either but remains unscathed.

Read this article:
Gillard cops the mother of all insults