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Courtesy of Phillip Coorey via news.com.au

KEVIN RUDD and his senior ministers were so suspicious of Lindsay Tanner that they used to hold fake pre-budget meetings to ensure their plans did not leak.

According to accounts of the meetings of the now abandoned Strategic Priorities and Budget Committee, nicknamed the gang of four, some meetings with Mr Tanner would deliberately be light on detail. After the meeting concluded and the then finance minister had left, the other three members of the committee – Mr Rudd, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan – would reconvene and discuss their budget plans in detail.

Departmental sources said the tactic was motivated by a suspicion that Mr Tanner was behind the leaking of budget stories early in the first term of the Rudd government.

There was no evidence Mr Tanner ever leaked anything, but the mistrust displayed towards him explains the tensions between him and his senior colleagues during the first term of the Labor government.

Mr Tanner, who retired from politics at the last election, did not return calls yesterday.

It was generally known in politics that Mr Tanner, who was well regarded for his political and financial prowess, was often frustrated during the first term at the lack of will to cut spending and take hard and unpopular decisions. He was the only member of the gang of four who argued against the shelving of the emissions trading scheme, a decision that destroyed Mr Rudd’s credibility and led to his demise as prime minister and almost the collapse of the Labor government.

He desired the job of treasurer but was always going to be blocked by Mr Swan.

It has already been documented that Mr Tanner was shut out of the process on some other big decisions such as the second stimulus package. He was consulted about the first version of the mining tax, which was scrapped following an outcry by miners and redesigned.

The revelation that he had been the victim of fake pre-budget meetings will only further sully the reputation of the management style of the Rudd government, which was deemed autocratic. Sources said Mr Tanner must have known that he was being conspired against with the fake meetings because he would have been informed by his department about budget decisions of which he was supposed to be aware.

Mr Tanner, who is writing a book, spoke to a business gathering in Sydney last week and asked that it be kept closed to the media.