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MELBOURNE - Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has admitted visiting a New York strip club during a drunken night while representing Australia at the United Nations.
Mr Rudd has confirmed he went to the club but could not recall the events of the evening because he "had too much
to drink".
"If my behaviour caused any offence to anybody whatsoever that evening I, of course, wholeheartedly apologise," he said.
Mr Rudd says he made a foolish mistake by going to the strip club.
Mr Rudd, a conservative Christian, said he was too drunk to remember much of his visit to Manhattan's Scores "gentlemen's club" in September 2003 with New York Post editor Col Allan and Labor backbencher Warren Snowdon.
He said neither he nor Mr Snowdon had a "completely clear recollection" of whether there were semi-naked women in the club or what they were doing.
"We can't actually recall anything that you wouldn't see in most pubs across Australia," Mr Rudd told the Nine Network today.
"But that doesn't absolve me for going in that door in the first place. That's where I made the error of judgment and it's something I shouldn't have done."
Mr Rudd was the opposition foreign affairs spokesman at the time and was in New York to represent Australia at the United Nations.
He rang his wife, Therese Rein, at home in Brisbane the next day to confess to her.
Mr Rudd said he expected his public popularity to plummet following the revelations.
"I think I'll take a belting in the opinion polls," he said.
"It's an embarrassing thing to happen. I think no-one would welcome it. I accept that.
"But I think at the end of the day people just want you to level with them and when you've made a mistake, be up-front about it."
Mr Rudd said he was not a big drinker and could only remember two occasions when he had drunk too much - the Scores night and at home on his 35th birthday.
"I've said from day one since I've been in public life - I'm as flawed and failed as the rest of them," he said.
"I don't apply these sorts of tests to any of my colleagues in politics, past or present.
"I own responsibility for my own actions here. I'm the bloke who took the decision to go out to this place ... and that's a foolish mistake on my part."
News Ltd papers today made an unsourced allegation that Mr Rudd had been warned by club management about his behaviour.
But Mr Allan said Mr Rudd had behaved like a perfect gentleman, while Mr Rudd said neither he nor Mr Snowdon had any recollection of any warnings.
"We'd had too much to drink, I accept that, but I think the big error made was just in going in there in the first place," Mr Rudd said.
"I accept responsibility for that, I don't make any excuses for being there, and with the benefit of hindsight it's something I just should not have done."
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said the story would endear Mr Rudd to voters because it showed he had "blood in his veins".
"I think most Australians will say 'big deal' and move on," Mr Beattie told ABC television.
"It shows that he's human, it shows that he's got blood in his veins. I don't think there's anything wrong with having blood in your veins, I don't think it will cost him anything at all."
Mr Rudd said he could think of better ways to humanise his image.
Treasurer Peter Costello declined to criticise Mr Rudd, but said he had never visited the Scores club.
"I find when I'm in America on official business they pack your program pretty full. I don't think that you get much time for that kind of activity," Mr Costello told the Ten Network.
- AAP
