Kevin Rudd has been undermining the federal government for more than a year, Environment Minister Tony Burke says.
He says the government made the mistake of not explaining to the Australian people 'the difference between the Kevin Rudd they saw on their TV screens and how he could actually come to be the micro-manager, the chaotic manager he had become'.
'There's no doubt Kevin has been undermining the government for more than a year now,' Mr Burke told the Seven Network on Thursday.
'It became chaotic, the chaos, the undermining, the temperament that started to develop, the micro-management where no one other than the prime minister could make a decision.
'We came to office with so much hope from people, and people wanting to believe in us.
'And Kevin as leader became someone who through his complex became increasingly impossible to work with and as a government we simply weren't delivering the way we should have been able to.'
Mr Burke said allegations Mr Rudd promised to overturn poker machines reforms if he regained the Labor leadership were 'breathtaking'.
'If that's true, then we have yet another example of one face being shown to the Australian people but a very different man in private,' he said.
Mr Rudd, who resigned as foreign minister on Wednesday, has denied the allegations.
