Bush-Rudd phone call leak 'amateurish'

(AAP) - The Rudd government had been amateurish in its handling of the row over a confidential phone call between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US President George Bush, a former diplomat says.

Retired Australian diplomat Bruce Haig said that while there was unlikely to be any
long-term damage from the incident, the government had been slow to manage the
"diplomatic gaffe".
"Diplomatically, this is a disaster, it comes into the category of sort of diplomacy
101. It's so fundamental, both in terms of whoever leaked it but much more
importantly in terms of how it's subsequently been handled," Mr Haig told ABC
Radio's PM program on Tuesday.
The incident meant that other countries would be wary in dealing with Australia and
Mr Rudd could well have "cruelled his pitch" when he attends the G20 meeting in the
US later this month.
"They'd see it as pretty amateur stuff. I mean, this is the sort of stuff you
wouldn't want to put your own prime minister in the position of being," Mr Haig
said.
"Other diplomats around Canberra must be saying, 'watch Rudd's office, they leak
like a sieve'.
"Even if that's not true, they'll still be very wary."
Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull bought into the spat for a third day
running, saying the matter was damaging Australia's reputation.
Mr Turnbull accused Mr Rudd of allowing the incident, reported in The Weekend
Australian newspaper 10 days ago, to undermine Australia's reputation in Washington
DC on the eve of the election of a new president.
"Now Mr Rudd can clear this up. What he has to do is explain very clearly exactly
what happened," Mr Turnbull said.
On Monday, Mr Rudd denied the reported version of events: that during a prearranged
telephone conversation about the global financial crisis, Mr Bush asked what the G20
(group of 20 nations) was.
The opposition initially ignored the alleged leak but called for an inquiry by the
Australian Federal Police after The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported a week later
that diplomats were concerned about fallout from the incident.
Mr Turnbull said he suspected the leaked version of events was "designed to make Mr
Rudd look like a diplomatic encyclopedia and make Mr Bush look stupid".
Mr Rudd is reported to have interrupted a dinner party at his Sydney residence,
Kirribilli House, at which The Australian editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell was a
guest, to take the phone call.
Mr Haig said it was likely Mr Rudd would have taken the call in a private office
with an official notetaker present.
Mr Rudd's office did not return several calls on Tuesday.