Rudd's Butler Outed?

Local News, By Christian Taylor, 2nd June, 2008

Journalists have once again gone snooping on Facebook for stories – this week laying bare the private life of Kevin Rudd’s butler, John Fisher.

While the Sunday Telegraph have made his salary public, and have questioned his role as Kevin’s personal assistant, comparing him to Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada, they’ve also basically outed him as well, or at the very least have made suggestions to him being gay.

According to his Facebook profile, Fisher lists his favourite quote as: “Don’t go stomping your last season Prada shoes at me, honey’’, from his favourite film Legally Blonde. He also lists Pretty Woman as a much adored flick and he loves “anything to do with Madonna’’.

Fisher also uploaded a bunch of photos to his profile from his 17 day world tour with Kevin, revealing that he spent some time at New York’s Stonewall Inn, a venue which is often credited as the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.

Other photographs reveal him shopping at Macy’s department store. There’s a photo of him taken on the jewellery, handbag and glove floor bearing the caption “shopping galore!”

Rudd is being criticised for having an assistant that costs taxpayers $78,000, although over the weekend a number of media sources labelled Kevin as a workaholic who is heading towards ill health if he doesn’t slow down. Typically, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Household and office staff of Rudd’s have been ordered to take down their Facebook profiles. Taking a second look at one’s Facebook profile is definitely a good idea for those who value their privacy.

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner recently defended Rudd’s work ethic, saying that there are a lot of people around the world who would love it if the harshest criticism one could make of their national leader was that they were working too hard. Tanner also said that there was nothing wrong with Rudd asking staff in the public service to work a little harder.

“Maybe the 10 or 11 years of not tackling big national problems allowed people in areas of the public service to think that not doing very much was normal,” he said.

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