History will rate Kevin Rudd a better prime minister than Gough Whitlam despite being dumped by his party yesterday, one of the country's most experienced political observers said last night.
In 2008, Australian psephologist Malcolm Mackerras ranked Australia's then 26 prime ministers, placing Kevin Rudd at number 14 and Gough Whitlam at 13.
At the time, he said he would review the list once Mr Rudd finished his term as prime minister.
Last night Mr Mackerras said he believed Kevin Rudd deserved to take Mr Whitlam's spot.
"My instinct is to put Rudd ahead of Whitlam, on the grounds that to be 'killed' by the Australian people in the humiliating way Whitlam was [in the 1975 election] means that you should go lower than Kevin Rudd," he said.
"[Mr Rudd] was simply an elected prime minister who became the first elected, first-term prime minister to be chucked out by his own party."
Mr Mackerras places Australia's prime ministers into four categories: great, high average, low average and fail.
At 13th spot, Mr Whitlam was rated among the high average prime ministers, while Mr Rudd - at 14th - was at the top of his low average PMs when Mr Mackerras collated his list in 2008.
Both men were below other prime ministers from the past 30 years including Bob Hawke (fifth), John Howard (10th), Paul Keating (11th) and Malcolm Fraser (12th).
Australia's longest serving prime minister, Robert Menzies, tops Mackerras's list.
Mr Mackerras said he now believed Mr Rudd had achieved more than Whitlam during their relatively brief tenures.
"He saved Australia from the recession by the stimulus packages and his supporters will say we were one of two countries that avoided the recession," he said.
Mr Mackerras acknowledged Rudd's opponents would argue that revenue from the mining industry kept the Australian economy above water.
Mr Mackerras also listed the passing of Australia's first-ever paid parental leave and the start of the national broadband network as Rudd government achievements.
"I would say the national broadband network will be built. It will not be seen as a white elephant," he said.
"Maybe [Prime Minister Andrew] Fisher with the trans-Australian railway and [Ben] Chifley with the Snowy Mountains Scheme can make a bigger claim than Kevin Rudd can with the national broadband network, but still, they are all achievements in infrastructure building and nation building."
However, Mr Mackerras said he could not move Rudd any higher up the list, above Fraser.
"Fraser won three general elections handsomely and I just can't see how I can raise Rudd above Malcolm Fraser," he said.
Mr Mackerras questioned Mr Rudd's failure to push the carbon pollution reduction scheme through parliament.
"You could simply argue that the Senate blocked it, and others would say he could have held a double dissolution back in February and got it through," he said.
Mr Mackerras said Mr Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generation was more about addressing a failure of the Howard Government than an outright achievement of his government.
"Howard bungled the reconciliation thing very badly and an example of his bungling was his quibbling about that," he said.
"Rudd simply had enough sense to see that he could earn some marks from this relatively easy decision to say sorry."
Read Mackerras' full list on the Brisbane Times .
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