Kevin Rudd has backed Julia Gillard's foreign policy credentials, insisting criticism levelled at her during her first overseas trip as prime minister last week was "grossly overblown".
Ms Gillard was criticised after admitting foreign policy wasn't her passion and that she'd rather "be in a school watching kids learn to read in Australia than here in Brussels at international meetings".
The PM was attending the Asia-Europe Meeting in Belgium at the time.
Mr Rudd, Australia's foreign minister, says Ms Gillard was making a valid point.
"I think it's being grossly overblown," he told ABC TV.
"The prime minister's absolutely right - education is a core priority of this government.
"It was a core priority of the government which I led as well.
"I think that's the only point and the core point that she was making."
Mr Rudd, who was replaced as prime minister by Ms Gillard in June, also defended his absence from Brussels.
"Foreign ministers in the past, whether it's in the period that I was prime minister or the period that Mr Howard was prime minister, rarely travelled with the prime minister to major international gatherings," he said.
"It's just our convention and our custom to do it that way."
