HIS COLOURFUL TURN OF PHRASE - For a man of diplomacy, the Queenslander has a dirty mouth.
"Those Chinese ratf---ers ... are trying to ratf--- us," Mr Rudd apparently told journalists during a climate change conference in 2010. And then there was this famous package of F-bombs.
"Can you tell these d--- heads in the embassy to just give me simple sentences? ... Tell that BLOODY interpreter ... ! This f---ing language! it just - complicates it - so much - it's just ..."
"I don't have the f---ing patience to do it. "Is this some f---ing Chinese interpreter up there? Just f---ing hopeless."
Staff at the Chinese embassy are probably a little unhappy about Australia's new leadership situation.