As the big end of the mining industry dined in the great hall of Parliament House, Mr Rudd was down the hill at the old Parliament House commemorating the centenary of Australia's first majority Labor government, led by Andrew Fisher.
"Friends, one and all," the prime minister told his comrades.
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"There's a bit of commentary tonight as to why I'm not up the hill at the mining industry function.
"The truth is I've just had a very amicable chat with a bunch of miners - as they would say in the language of diplomacy, `firm but friendly and occasionally frank'."
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard sat at the back of the room as Mr Rudd spent 31 minutes telling an audience of 150 people about Mr Fisher, a Scottish-born coalminer who in April 1910 formed the world's first majority Labor government.
Cabinet ministers John Faulkner, Robert McClelland, Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen were present as Mr Rudd spoke about the first Queenslander to become prime minister.
Up the hill, the gala crowd was much bigger with almost 550 people dining courtesy of the Minerals Council.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott shared the great hall with Labor cabinet ministers Lindsay Tanner, Stephen Smith, Simon Crean, Chris Evans and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson.
On the day that mining magnate Clive Palmer was in Canberra, Mr
Rudd had a few words to say about "that noble representative of a
Queensland long past".
"He was at the National Press Club today and I'm told that he said, `Once there was Marx and Engels, and now we have Marx, Engels and Rudd'," the prime minister quipped.
"I find it, however, passing strange that ... Clive Palmer could refer to Marx, Engels and Rudd, coming from a bloke who by all reports has made most of his millions from Chairman Mao's China."
Unlike Mr Fisher, who lost the 1913 election, the prime minister was hopeful of a victory in 2010 in the face of opinion poll struggles.
"I'm an admirer of Andrew Fisher - there's one thing I don't seek to emulate him on, however. That's lose that second election; I'm planning to win the second election for the Australian Labor Party."
