Kevin Rudd
Prime Minister of Australia (2007-2010; 2013) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kevin Michael Rudd AC (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June 2013 to September 2013. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Rudd has been the 23rd and current ambassador of Australia to the United States since 2023.[2]
Kevin Rudd | |
---|---|
23rd Ambassador of Australia to the United States | |
Assumed office 20 March 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Anthony Albanese |
Preceded by | Arthur Sinodinos |
26th Prime Minister of Australia | |
In office 27 June 2013 – 18 September 2013 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Governor General | Quentin Bryce |
Deputy | Anthony Albanese |
Preceded by | Julia Gillard |
Succeeded by | Tony Abbott |
In office 3 December 2007 – 24 June 2010 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Governors General |
|
Deputy | Julia Gillard |
Preceded by | John Howard |
Succeeded by | Julia Gillard |
Leader of the Labor Party | |
In office 26 June 2013 – 13 September 2013 | |
Deputy | Anthony Albanese |
Preceded by | Julia Gillard |
Succeeded by | Bill Shorten |
In office 4 December 2006 – 24 June 2010 | |
Deputy | Julia Gillard |
Preceded by | Kim Beazley |
Succeeded by | Julia Gillard |
Leader of the Opposition | |
In office 4 December 2006 – 3 December 2007 | |
Deputy | Julia Gillard |
Preceded by | Kim Beazley |
Succeeded by | Brendan Nelson |
Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
In office 14 September 2010 – 22 February 2012 | |
Prime Minister | Julia Gillard |
Preceded by | Stephen Smith |
Succeeded by | Bob Carr |
Member of the Australian Parliament for Griffith | |
In office 3 October 1998 – 22 November 2013 | |
Preceded by | Graeme McDougall |
Succeeded by | Terri Butler |
Personal details | |
Born | Kevin Michael Rudd (1957-09-21) 21 September 1957 (age 66) Nambour, Queensland, Australia |
Political party | Labor |
Spouse | |
Children | 3 |
Profession |
|
Signature | |
Website | Official website |
Nickname | Kevin 07[1] |
Academic background | |
Education | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | China’s New Marxist Nationalism: Defining Xi Jinping’s Ideological Worldview (2022) |
Doctoral advisor |
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Born in Nambour, Queensland, Rudd graduated from the Australian National University with honours in Chinese studies, and is fluent in Mandarin. Before entering politics, he worked as a diplomat and public servant for the Goss Ministry. Rudd was elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 1998 federal election, as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Griffith. He was promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2001 as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. In December 2006, he defeated Kim Beazley in a leadership spill to become the leader of the Labor Party, thus becoming Leader of the Opposition. Rudd led Labor to a landslide victory at the 2007 election, defeating the Howard government. The Rudd government's earliest acts included action on climate change through ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and delivering the first national apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples for the Stolen Generations. The Government also provided economic stimulus packages in response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, resulting in Australia becoming one of the only developed countries to avoid the late-2000s recession. Other signature policies included establishing the National Broadband Network (NBN), launching the Digital Education Revolution and the Building the Education Revolution, dismantling WorkChoices, and withdrawing Australian troops from the Iraq War.
In 2010, Rudd began to face instability within his party, after the Australian Senate rejected his government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. This prompted deputy prime minister Julia Gillard to challenge him for the leadership of the Labor Party in June of that year. Rather than contest the leadership, Rudd chose to resign, meaning that Gillard replaced him as prime minister. His removal from office began a sequence of four subsequent prime ministers who would all be removed by their own parties before completing their full first term.[3] Rudd remained in the party as a backbencher, and chose to re-contest his seat at the 2010 election, which resulted in a Gillard-led minority government. Within the Gillard government, Rudd was brought back into the Cabinet by Gillard as Minister for Foreign Affairs. He remained in that role until resigning in February 2012, citing Gillard's failure to discipline colleagues who had publicly criticised him. In response, Gillard called a leadership spill, which Rudd lost. Tensions over the leadership nevertheless continued; after a spill in March 2013, which Rudd did not contest, a further ballot was held in June 2013, which Rudd won by 57 votes to 45, becoming prime minister once again. His second term as prime minister lasted less than three months, as Labor was defeated at the 2013 election.
Rudd retired from parliament following the election, but has stayed active in politics. In February 2014, he was named Senior Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he leads research on the future of China–United States relations. He was also appointed as a distinguished fellow-in-residence at the Paulson Institute within the University of Chicago in September of that year. Additionally, he is chair of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, chair of Sanitation and Water for All, and chairman of the board at the International Peace Institute. In January 2021, he was assigned as the eighth president and CEO of the Asia Society. Notably, Rudd has campaigned against media mogul Rupert Murdoch's dominance in Australian political debate, and called for a royal commission into media diversity in the country. He was appointed as Australia's Ambassador to the U.S. by the Albanese government in March 2023.
Rudd maintained long periods of popularity in opinion polls during his initial tenure as prime minister for successfully helping Australia through the global financial crisis and for his well renowned apology to the Indigenous community,[4][5] but he saw a rapid decrease in popularity both in public polling and within his own party after his failure to deliver key pieces of legislation.[6] He was praised for his management of the global financial crisis,[7][8] willingness to apologise to Indigenous Australians,[9] and diplomatic skills,[10][11] but was widely criticised for his failure to negotiate a carbon pricing scheme and a tax on non-renewable resources.[12][13] He is often ranked in the middle-to-lower tier of Australian prime ministers.[14][15][16]
Rudd is of English and Irish descent.[17] His paternal fourth great-grandparents were English and of convict heritage: Thomas Rudd and Mary Cable. Thomas arrived from London, England in 1801; Mary arrived from Essex in 1804. Thomas Rudd, who was convicted of stealing a bag of sugar, arrived in NSW on board the Earl Cornwallis in 1801.[18]
Rudd was born in Nambour, Queensland, to Albert ("Bert") and Margaret (née DeVere) Rudd, the youngest son of four children, and grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Eumundi.[19] At an early age (5–7), he contracted rheumatic fever and spent a considerable time at home convalescing. It damaged his heart, in particular the valves, for which he has thus far had two aortic valve replacement surgeries, but this was discovered only some 12 years later.[20] Farm life, which required the use of horses and guns, is where he developed his lifelong love of horse riding and shooting clay targets.[21] He attended Eumundi State School.[22]
When Rudd was 11, his father, a share farmer and Country Party member, died. Rudd states that the family was required to leave the farm amidst financial difficulty between two and three weeks after the death, though the family of the landowner states that the Rudds didn't have to leave for almost six months.[23] Following this traumatic childhood and despite familial connections with the Country Party, Rudd joined the Australian Labor Party in 1972 at the age of 15.[24]
Rudd boarded at Marist College Ashgrove in Brisbane,[25] although these years were not happy due to the indignity of poverty and reliance on charity; he was known to be a "charity case" due to his father's sudden death. He has since described the school as "tough, harsh, unforgiving, institutional Catholicism of the old school".[20] Two years later, after she retrained as a nurse, Rudd's mother moved the family to Nambour, and Rudd rebuilt his standing through study and scholastic application[20] and was dux of Nambour State High School in 1974.[26] In that year, he was also the state winner of the "Youth Speaks for Australia" public speaking competition sponsored by the Jaycees.[27] His future Treasurer Wayne Swan attended the same school at the same time, although they did not know each other as Swan was three years ahead.[26]
Rudd studied at the Australian National University in Canberra, where he resided at Burgmann College and graduated with Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) with First-Class Honours. He majored in Chinese language and Chinese history, and became proficient in Mandarin. His Chinese name is Lù Kèwén (simplified Chinese: 陆克文; traditional Chinese: 陸克文).[28] Rudd completed his BA in 1978, deferring his honours component for a year during which time he took a study trip to Taiwan. He also volunteered as a research assistant with the Zadok Institute for Christianity and at a St Vincent de Paul drug rehabilitation centre.[29]
Rudd's thesis on Chinese democracy activist Wei Jingsheng[30] was supervised by Pierre Ryckmans, the eminent Belgian-Australian sinologist.[31] During his studies, Rudd did housecleaning for political commentator Laurie Oakes to earn extra money.[32] In 1980 he continued his Chinese studies at the Mandarin Training Center of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan. Delivering the 2008 Gough Whitlam Lecture at the University of Sydney on The Reforming Centre of Australian Politics, Rudd praised the former Labor Prime Minister for implementing educational reforms, saying he was:
... a kid who lived Gough Whitlam's dream that every child should have a desk with a lamp on it where he or she could study. A kid whose mum told him after the 1972 election that it might just now be possible for the likes of him to go to university. A kid from the country of no particular means and of no political pedigree who could therefore dream that one day he could make a contribution to our national political life.[33]
Rudd joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1981 as a graduate trainee. His first posting was as Third Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Stockholm from November 1981 to December 1983 where he organised an Australian film festival, represented Australia at the Stockholm Conference on Acidification of the Environment, and reported on Soviet gas pipelines and European energy security.[34][page needed] In 1984, Rudd was appointed Second Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, and promoted to First Secretary in 1985, where he was responsible for analysing Politburo politics, economic reform, arms control and human rights under Ross Garnaut, David Irvine and Geoff Raby.[34][page needed] He returned to Canberra in 1987 and was assigned to the Policy Planning Branch, then the Staffing Policy Section, and was selected to serve as the Office of National Assessments Liaison Officer at the Australian High Commission in London commencing in 1989 but declined.[35]
In 1988, he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Opposition Leader in Queensland, Wayne Goss. He remained in that role when Goss was elected Premier in 1989, a position he held until 1992 when Goss appointed him Director-General of the Office of Cabinet. In this position, Rudd was arguably Queensland's most powerful bureaucrat.[31] He presided over a number of reforms, including development of a national program for teaching foreign languages in schools. Rudd was influential in both promoting a policy of developing an Asian languages and cultures program which was unanimously accepted by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 1992 and later chaired a high-level working group which provided the foundation of the strategy in its report, which is frequently cited as "the Rudd Report".[36]
The Goss Government saw its majority slashed in 1995, before losing it altogether after a by-election one year later. After Goss' resignation, Rudd left the Queensland Government and was hired as a Senior China Consultant by the accounting firm KPMG Australia. While in that position, he won selection to be the Labor candidate for the seat of Griffith at the 1996 federal election. Despite being endorsed by the retiring Labor MP, Ben Humphreys,[37] Rudd was considerably hampered by Labor's unpopularity in Queensland, as well as a redistribution that almost halved Labor's majority. Rudd was defeated by Liberal Graeme McDougall on the eighth count as Labor won only two seats in Queensland. Rudd stood in the same seat against McDougall in the 1998 election, this time winning on the fifth count.
Rudd made his maiden speech to the House of Representatives as the new Member for the Division of Griffith on 11 November 1998.[38]
Shadow Minister (2001–2006)
Following Labor's defeat in the 2001 federal election, Rudd was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet and appointed Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.[39] In 2002, he met with British intelligence and helped define the position that Labor would take in regards to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
There is no debate or dispute as to whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. He does. There's no dispute as whether he's in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. He is.[40]
After the fall of Saddam Hussein he would criticise the Howard government over its support for the United States, while maintaining Labor's position of support for the Australian-American alliance.
Well, what Secretary Powell and the US seems to have said is that he now has grave doubts about the accuracy of the case he put to the United Nations about the claim that Iraq possessed biological weapons laboratories – the so-called mobile trailers. And here in Australia, that formed also part of the government's argument on the war. I think what it does is it adds to the fabric of how the Australian people were misled about the reasons for going to war.[41]
Rudd's policy experience and parliamentary performances during the Iraq War made him one of the best-known Labor members. When Labor Leader Simon Crean was challenged by his predecessor Kim Beazley, Rudd did not publicly commit himself to either candidate.[42] When Crean resigned, Rudd was considered a possible candidate for the Labor leadership,[43] however he announced that he would not run in the leadership ballot, and would instead vote for Kim Beazley.
Rudd was predicted by some commentators to be demoted or moved as a result of his support for Beazley following the election of Mark Latham as Leader, but he retained his portfolio. Relations between Latham and Rudd deteriorated during 2004, especially after Latham made his pledge to withdraw all Australian forces from Iraq by Christmas 2004 without consulting Rudd.[44] After Latham failed to win the 2004 federal election, Rudd was again spoken of as a possible alternative leader, although he disavowed any intention of challenging Latham.
When Latham suddenly resigned in January 2005, Rudd was in Indonesia and refused to say whether he would be a candidate for the Labor leadership.[45] After returning from Indonesia, Rudd announced that he would again not contest the leadership, and Beazley was subsequently elected unopposed. Following this, Rudd was given expanded responsibilities in the Shadow Cabinet, retaining his role as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and also becoming the Shadow Minister for Trade.
Leader of the Opposition (2006–2007)
Following opinion polls indicating that voter support for Rudd as Labor Leader was higher than for Beazley, speculation mounted that Rudd would challenge Beazley for the leadership. One particular poll in November 2006 indicated that support for Labor would double if Rudd was to become Leader.[46] On 1 December 2006, Beazley called a leadership election. Rudd announced his candidacy for the leadership hours later.[47][48] On 4 December, Rudd was elected Leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition with 49 votes to Beazley's 39. Julia Gillard was subsequently elected unopposed as Deputy Leader after Jenny Macklin resigned.[49]
At his first press conference as Labor Leader, having thanked Beazley and Macklin, Rudd said he would offer a "new style of leadership" and would be an "alternative, not just an echo" of the Howard government. He outlined the areas of industrial relations, the war in Iraq, climate change, Australian federalism, social justice and the future of Australia's manufacturing industry as major policy concerns. Rudd also stressed his long experience in state government and also as a diplomat and in business before entering federal politics.[50]
Rudd and the Labor Party soon overtook the Howard government in both party and leadership polling. Rudd maintained a high media profile with major announcements on an "education revolution",[51] federalism,[52] climate change,[53] a National Broadband Network,[54] and the domestic car industry.
In March 2007 the government raised questions over a series of meetings Rudd had had with former West Australian Labor Premier Brian Burke during 2005, alleging that Rudd had been attempting to use Burke's influence to become Labor leader (after losing office, Burke had spent time in prison before returning to politics as a lobbyist).[55] Rudd said that this had not been the purpose of the three meetings and said that they had been arranged by his colleague Graham Edwards, the Member for Cowan.[56]
From 2002, Rudd appeared regularly in interviews and topical discussions on the popular breakfast television program Sunrise, along with Liberal MP Joe Hockey. This was credited with helping to raise Rudd's public profile even further.[57] Rudd and Hockey ended their joint appearances in April 2007, citing the increasing political pressures of an election year.[58]
On 19 August 2007, it was revealed that Rudd, while on a visit to New York City as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, had visited a strip club in September 2003, with New York Post editor Col Allan and Labor MP Warren Snowdon. By way of explanation, Rudd said: "I had had too much to drink, I have no recollection, and nor does Mr Snowdon, of any incident occurring at the nightclub – or of being asked to leave...it is our recollection that we left within about an hour".[59] The incident generated a lot of media coverage, but made no impact on Rudd's popularity in the polls.[60] Some believe the incident may have enabled Rudd to appear "more human" and lifted his popularity.[61]
2007 election
Electoral writs were issued for the 2007 federal election on 17 October 2007. On 21 October, Rudd faced incumbent Prime Minister John Howard in a television debate, where he was judged by most media analysts to have performed strongly.[62]
On 14 November, Rudd officially launched the Labor Party's election campaign with a policy of fiscal restraint, usually considered the electoral strength of the opposing Liberal Party. Rudd proposed Labor spending measures totalling $2.3 billion, contrasting them to $9.4 billion Rudd claimed the Liberals had promised, declaring: "Today, I am saying loud and clear that this sort of reckless spending must stop."[63][64]
The election was held on 24 November, and was won overwhelmingly by Labor. The result was dubbed a 'Ruddslide' by the media and was underpinned by the considerable support from Rudd's home state of Queensland, with the state result recording a two-party preferred swing of 7.53%.[65] The overall swing was 5.44% from the Liberals to Labor, the third largest swing at a federal election since two party estimates began in 1949.
As foreshadowed during the election campaign, on 29 November Rudd announced the members of his Government (see First Rudd Ministry), breaking with more than a century of Labor tradition whereby the frontbench was elected by the Labor caucus, with the leader then given the right to allocate portfolios.[66][67]