You often hear newsreaders and commentators praise Rudd for his role either in founding the G20 or getting Australia included in the G20. Both these claims are completely ahistorical, or to put it another way, no such thing ever happened.
The G20 was founded in 1999, when John Howard was prime minister, eight years before Labor came to office, at a time when Rudd was a humble backbencher.
The Labor Party is brilliant at its manipulation of history. It peddles a series of myths, breathtaking in their factual audacity, about Australia's diplomatic history.
One is that Labor founded the US alliance -- wrong; Robert Menzies did in 1951. Another is that Paul Keating founded APEC -- wrong; Bob Hawke did in 1989. Another is that Labor founded the APEC leaders' summit -- wrong; Bill Clinton did.
If any Australian was involved in the founding of the G20, it was Peter Costello, who was treasurer in 1999. In 2008, US president George W. Bush convened the G20 as a summit. He did not found the G20, he elevated it to summit level. Rudd was one of many, many international voices urging Bush to do this.
I have no doubt that Howard had a lot of influence on Bush, and that Rudd as prime minister had substantial influence on Barack Obama. It is very unclear that Rudd had significant influence on Bush, given Rudd's opposition to Bush's policies in Iraq. Labor prime ministers are superb at creating the myth of their own influence, but look at one example from history.
Clinton's memoirs deal extensively with his decision to convene an APEC summit. They do not mention Keating at all, in that context or any other, though they contain glowing passages about Howard. Yet in Labor mythology, somehow or other Keating founded the APEC summit.
How important is it that Australia's prime minister won't be at the G20? The answer is not very important at all.
At all these multilateral institutions it is well accepted that a domestic election, or any big crisis, well justifies a particular leader not turning up for a particular meeting.
Greg Sheridan is The Australian's foreign editor.
