Kevin Rudd

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Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Incumbent
Assumed office 
4 December 2006
Preceded by Kim Beazley
Constituency Griffith
Born 21 September 1957
Nambour, Queensland Flag of Australia
Political party Australian Labor Party
Spouse Therese Rein
Children Jessica, Nicholas and Marcus[1]
Residence Norman Park, Queensland
Religion Anglican
Website www.kevinrudd.com

Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957), is the leader of the federal Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Parliament. He has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 1998, representing the Division of Griffith, Queensland.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Rudd was born in Nambour, Queensland, and grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Eumundi. He boarded at Marist College Ashgrove in Brisbane and was dux of Nambour High School in 1974.[2] A critical influence on Rudd's political persuasion was the death of his father, a share farmer and Country Party member, when he was 11, and the hardships this forced upon his family. Rudd has often claimed that his family was evicted from the farm shortly after the death of his father.[3] Rudd joined the ALP in 1972, at the age of 15.[4]

Rudd later went on to study at the Australian National University in Canberra, graduating with First Class Honours in Arts (Asian Studies). He majored in Chinese language, in which he is fluent, as well as Chinese history. During his time at ANU, Rudd resided at Burgmann College. During his studies in Canberra, Rudd cleaned the house of political commentator Laurie Oakes to earn money.[5]

[edit] Early career

In 1981 Rudd joined the Australian Diplomatic Service, where he served until 1988. He and his wife, Therese Rein, spent most of the 1980s overseas posted at the Australian embassies in Stockholm, Sweden and later Beijing, China.

Returning to Australia in 1988, he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Labor Opposition Leader in Queensland, Wayne Goss. He became Chief of Staff of the Premier when the Labor party won office 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 [1]. In this role 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 Coalition 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".[2]

When the Goss government lost office in 1995, Rudd was hired as a Senior China Consultant by the accounting firm KPMG Australia. He held this position while unsuccessfully contesting the federal seat of Griffith at the 1996 federal election. At the 1998 election he contested Griffith again, this time being successful.

[edit] Federal politics

Following his 1998 election success, Rudd was promoted to the Opposition front bench after the 2001 election, and was appointed Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. In this position he strongly criticised the Liberal government of John Howard over its support for the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, while maintaining Labor's position of support for the Australian-American alliance. Rudd has grown increasingly sceptical about the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq since the invasion. In a 2004 interview with Channel 7, Rudd said:

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.[6]

Rudd's policy experience and parliamentary performances during the Iraq war made him one of the best-known members of the Labor front bench. When Opposition Leader Simon Crean was challenged by his predecessor Kim Beazley in June, Rudd did not publicly commit himself to either candidate.[7] When Crean finally resigned in late November, Rudd was considered a possible candidate for the Labor leadership,[8] but announced that he would not run in the leadership ballot.

Following the election of Mark Latham as Leader, Rudd was expected by some commentators to be demoted or moved as a result of his support for Beazley, 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.[9] After Latham led Labor to a heavy defeat at the October 2004 federal election, Rudd was again spoken of as a possible alternative leader. He retained his foreign affairs portfolio and disavowed any intention of challenging Latham.

When Latham suddenly resigned in January 2005, Rudd was visiting Indonesia, and refused to say whether he would be a candidate for the Labor leadership.[10] Such a candidacy would have required him to run against Beazley, his factional colleague. "The important thing for me to do is to consult with my colleagues in the party", he said.[11] After returning from Indonesia, Rudd consulted with Labor MPs in Sydney and Melbourne and announced that he would not contest the leadership.

In June 2005 Rudd was given expanded responsibilities as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Security, and Shadow Minister for Trade.

Rudd is a supporter of the road map for peace and defended Israel's right to self-defence during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, condemning Hezbollah and Hamas for "violating" Israeli territory.[12] This was seen as a step towards mending relations between the Jewish community and the ALP following the comments of several backbenchers.[13]

[edit] Labor Leader

Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard at their first press conference as Leader and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party, 4 December 2006
Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard at their first press conference as Leader and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party, 4 December 2006

In December 2006, with a Newspoll opinion poll suggesting that voter support for Rudd to be double that for Beazley,[14][15] he announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party in a Beazley-announced leadership ballot.[16] Fellow Labor MP Julia Gillard ran alongside Rudd for Deputy Leader of the ALP.

The vote took place on Monday 4 December 2006 and saw Rudd elected leader by a margin of 49 votes to 39 over Beazley. Gillard was subsequently elected unopposed as Deputy Leader.[17]

After the ballot Rudd and Gillard gave a press conference in the Caucus Room. Rudd began by paying tribute to Beazley and Jenny Macklin (the previous Deputy Leader) and thanking them for their service to the Labor Party. Rudd then 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, as a diplomat and also in business before entering federal politics.[18]

In November 2006 it was reported that Rudd had met three times with Brian Burke, a disgraced former Labor Premier of Western Australia and convicted criminal in 2005. In March 2007, after a succession of opinion polls showing the Rudd and Labor to be in the ascendant over the Government, the Howard Government accused Rudd of being morally compromised and suggested that the meeting had occurred to enlist Burke's support in Rudd's future leadership challenge. Graham Edwards, the Federal MP who had introduced the pair, stated that he "was pretty keen to push him (Mr Rudd) through a number of different areas in Western Australia, to get him to know the state and to get people to know him". John Howard himself stated that Edwards' statement was "code in politics for promoting him as a future leader". [19] Rudd has suggested that Howard is merely attempting to launch a smear campaign following Labor's success at the polls. [20]
In the aftermath of the attacks on Rudd's character, both Rudd's approval and the Labor Party's vote surged in independent polling, with Newspoll showing Labor leading the Coalition by 61-39 in two-party-preferred terms and Rudd leading Howard as preferred Prime Minister by 49-36.[21]

[edit] Political views

[edit] Economics

In his first speech to parliament, Rudd stated that:

Competitive markets are massive and generally efficient generators of economic wealth. They must therefore have a central place in the management of the economy. But markets sometimes fail, requiring direct government intervention through instruments such as industry policy. There are also areas where the public good dictates that there should be no market at all.[22]

In the same speech, he praised Third Way politics as "a new formulation of the nation's economic and social imperatives" and "a repudiation of Thatcherism and its Australian derivatives."

Rudd is critical of free market economists such as Friedrich Hayek,[23][24] although he describes himself as "basically a conservative when it comes to questions of public financial management", pointing to his slashing of public service jobs as a governmental advisor which led to the nickname of "Dr Death".[25][26]

[edit] Foreign policy

As shadow foreign minister, Rudd reformulated Labor's foreign policy in terms of "Three Pillars": engagement with the UN, engagement with Asia, and the US alliance.[27]

At that time, Rudd opposed the war in Iraq,[6] and has pledged to negotiate a staged withdrawal of Australian combat troops stationed there with the U.S. and Iraqi governments if elected Prime Minister.[28] On the other hand, he supports Australia's military presence in Afghanistan.[29]

[edit] Religious views

Rudd was raised as a Roman Catholic.[30] At University, he met and later married Therese Rein, an Anglican, and converted to Anglicanism in the 1980s.[4] Rudd and his family currently attend a church in his electorate.

Rudd is vocal about his Christianity and has given a number of prominent interviews to the Australian religious press on the topic.[31][32] Rudd has defended church representatives engaging with policy debates, particularly with respect to WorkChoices legislation, climate change, global poverty, therapeutic cloning and asylum seekers.[33][34][35] In an essay in The Monthly, Rudd writes:

A Christian perspective on contemporary policy debates may not prevail. It must nonetheless be argued. And once heard, it must be weighed, together with other arguments from different philosophical traditions, in a fully contestable secular polity. A Christian perspective, informed by a social gospel or Christian socialist tradition, should not be rejected contemptuously by secular politicians as if these views are an unwelcome intrusion into the political sphere. If the churches are barred from participating in the great debates about the values that ultimately underpin our society, our economy and our polity, then we have reached a very strange place indeed.[33]

He cites Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a personal inspiration in this regard.[36]

In late January 2007, Tony Abbott - a former seminarian and the current federal minister for health - criticized Rudd's use of Christianity in Australian politics,[37] contrasting Rudd's public appeal to Christian values with his voting record on issues such as the introduction of the abortion-inducing drug RU486.[38][39]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kevin Rudd - Member for Griffith. Australian Labor Party. Retrieved on 2007-01-30.
  2. ^ Genesis of an ideas man. The Australian (5 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
  3. ^ Duff, Eamonn (11 March 2007). A disputed eviction and a tale of family honour. The Sun-Herald. Retrieved on 2007-03-11.
  4. ^ a b Marriner, Cosima (9 December 2006). The lonely road to the top. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  5. ^ Overington, Caroline (9 December 2006). McKew impressed to the max. The Australian. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
  6. ^ a b Interview: Shadow Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. Transcripts by category: Politics. Seven Network (4 April 2004). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  7. ^ Error on call to Template:cite web: Parameters url and title must be specified. Lateline (7 June 2003). Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  8. ^ McGrath, Catherine (28 November 2003). Beazley, Latham, Rudd in ALP leadership lineup. AM. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  9. ^ Brissenden, Michael (30 March 2004). Howard on front foot over troops. The 7.30 Report. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  10. ^ Rudd to end suspense tomorrow. The Age (23 January 2005). Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  11. ^ Rudd non-committal on leadership aspirations. ABC News (18 January 2005). Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  12. ^ Rudd: Hamas, Hezbollah and Lebanon in ‘violation’. Australian Jewish News (18 July 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  13. ^ Kevin Rudd visits Israel. The World Today. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (25 July 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  14. ^ Editorial: ALP in fight with the wrong enemy. The Australian (2 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  15. ^ Federal voting intention and leaders’ ratings. Newspoll, The Australian (30 November 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  16. ^ Rudd, Beazley to lobby colleagues. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  17. ^ Rudd ousts Beazley. The Age. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  18. ^ Press Conference. Australian Labor Party (4 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  19. ^ I hoped Burke would help Rudd, says MP. The Australian (7 March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
  20. ^ Rudd says attacks poll-driven. The Age (5 March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-05.
  21. ^ Labor soars to 20-year high in latest Newspoll. The Australian (20 March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
  22. ^ Rudd, Kevin (11 November 1998). First Speech to Parliament. Parliament of Australia. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  23. ^ Rudd, Kevin (16 November 2006). What's Wrong with the Right. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  24. ^ Hartcher, Peter (14 October 2006). Howard's warriors sweep all before them. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  25. ^ New Labor Leader Outlines Plan. The 7.30 Report (4 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
  26. ^ Labor elects new leader. The 7.30 Report (4 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
  27. ^ Sheridan, Greg (9 December 2006). ALP's pillar of wisdom. The Australian. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  28. ^ Kerr, Joseph (24 Feb 2007). We won't abandon ally: Rudd. The Australian. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  29. ^ Afghan, Iraq wars are not the same: Rudd. The Age (23 Feb 2007). Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  30. ^ Zwartz, Barney (9 December 2006). ALP's new man puts his faith on display. The Age. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  31. ^ Woodall, Helen (November 2003). Kevin Rudd talks about his faith. The Melbourne Anglican. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  32. ^ Egan, Carmel (3 December 2006). Kevin Rudd. The Age. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  33. ^ a b Rudd, Kevin (October 2006). Faith in Politics. The Monthly. Retrieved on 2006-12-09.
  34. ^ Rudd, Kevin (26 October 2005). Christianity and Politics 9. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  35. ^ Anglican leader joins IR debate. ABC news (11 July 2005). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  36. ^ Tony Jones speaks to Kevin Rudd. Lateline (2 October 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
  37. ^ The gospel according to Kevin. The Australian (27 January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
  38. ^ Tirade 'shows Govt fears Rudd's rise'. ABC (27 January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
  39. ^ RU486 for Australia?. Australian Parliamentary Library (29 November 2005). Retrieved on 2007-01-27.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by
Graeme McDougall		 Member for Griffith
1998 – present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Kim Beazley		 Leader of the Australian Labor Party
2006 – present		 Incumbent
Leaders of the Australian Labor Party
Watson | Fisher | Hughes | Tudor | Charlton | Scullin | Curtin | Chifley | Evatt | Calwell | Whitlam | Hayden | Hawke | Keating | Beazley | Crean | Latham | Beazley | Rudd
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../k/e/v/Kevin_Rudd_578c.html"
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