KEVIN RUDD

'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. Should Labor win a majority of lower house seats at the upcoming 2007 federal election, Rudd will succeed John Howard and become the 26th Prime Minister of Australia.

Contents

Early life

Early career

Federal politics

Early political career

Rise to Labor leadership

Political views

Economics

Foreign policy

Industrial relations

Religious views

External links

References

See also

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^[2] and was dux of Nambour High School in 1974.^[3] 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's family was evicted from the farm after the death of his father, although his account of the circumstances surrounding the eviction has been disputed.^[4] Rudd joined the ALP in 1972, at the age of 15.^[5]
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.^[6]

Early career

In 1981 Rudd joined the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, where he served until 1988. He and his wife, Thérèse 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 to 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.^[7]
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 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".^[8]
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.

Federal politics

Early political career

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.''^[9]

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.^[10] When Crean finally resigned in late November, Rudd was considered a possible candidate for the Labor leadership,^[11] However, Rudd announced that he would not run in the leadership ballot, and would instead vote for Kim Beazley.
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.^[12] After Latham failed to win 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.^[13] 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.^[14] After returning from Indonesia, Rudd consulted with Labor MPs in Sydney and Melbourne and announced that he would not contest the leadership. Kim Beazley was subsequently elected leader.
In June 2005 Rudd was given expanded responsibilities as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Security, and Shadow Minister for Trade.

Rise to Labor leadership

In December 2006, with a Newspoll opinion poll suggesting that voter support for Rudd to be double that for Beazley,^[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 with 49 votes to Beazley's 39, almost exactly three years after the election of Mark Latham to the leadership. Gillard was subsequently elected unopposed as Deputy Leader.^[17]
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]
Rudd and the ALP soon overtook the government in both party and leadership polling. The new leader maintained a high media profile with major announcements on federalism, climate change, broadband Internet and the domestic car industry.
Rudd appeared regularly on popular breakfast television program Sunrise both in interviews as Opposition Leader and debating topics with Federal MP Joe Hockey. These appearances have sometimes been credited with helping him raise his profile.^[19] Kevin Rudd has since ended these appearances on Sunrise, claiming that it was due to the increasing political pressures in an election year,^[20] although claims were also made that it was due to a controversial, and later abandoned, ANZAC Day dawn service plan.^[21]

Political views

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/ordoliberal 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] although Rudd 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 Queensland governmental advisor.^[24]

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.^[25]
Rudd opposes the war in Iraq, 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.^[26] On the other hand, he supports Australia's military presence in Afghanistan.^[27]
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.^[28] This was seen as a step towards mending relations between the Jewish community and the ALP following the comments of several backbenchers.^[29]

Industrial relations

Rudd has consistently opposed the Government's controversial WorkChoices industrial legislation.^[30]
Rudd advocates a federal, rather than states-based, industrial relations system based on collective bargaining. He has proposed a policy of secret ballots of workers before strikes, which would become banned except during periods of collective bargaining.^[31]

Religious views

Rudd was raised as a Roman Catholic.^[32] At university he met and later married Thérèse Rein, an Anglican, and began attending Anglican services in the 1980s. 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.^[33]
Rudd has defended church representatives engaging with policy debates, particularly with respect to WorkChoices legislation, climate change, global poverty, therapeutic cloning and asylum seekers.^[34] 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. Faith in Politics

He cites Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a personal inspiration in this regard.^[35]
In late January 2007, Tony Abbott - a former seminarian and the current federal minister for health - criticised Rudd's use of Christianity in Australian politics,^[36] contrasting Rudd's public appeal to Christian values with his voting record on issues such as the introduction of the abortion-inducing drug RU486.^[37]

External links

★ Official Parliamentary Homepage for Kevin Rudd

★ Official ALP Homepage for Kevin Rudd

★ Kevin07.com - Kevin Rudd's 2007 online campaign page

★

★ Video - Labour Day 2007 rally speech by Kevin Rudd in Brisbane

References

1. Kevin Rudd - Member for Griffith
2. It's private - the school he wants to forget Cosima Marriner
3. Genesis of an ideas man
4. A disputed eviction and a tale of family honour
5. The lonely road to the top
6. McKew impressed to the max
7. Kevin Rudd: an unauthorised biography, , Nicholas, Stuart, Scribe, ,
8.
;

9. Interview: Shadow Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd
10. Lateline
11. Beazley, Latham, Rudd in ALP leadership lineup
12. Howard on front foot over troops
13. Rudd to end suspense tomorrow
14. Rudd non-committal on leadership aspirations
15. Editorial: ALP in fight with the wrong enemy ; Federal voting intention and leaders’ ratings
16. Rudd, Beazley to lobby colleagues
17. Rudd ousts Beazley
18. Press Conference
19. Rudd Challenge, Michael Brissenden, ABC Stateline Canberra, 1-Dec-2006
20. [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,4057,21563847-2,00.html
21. Sun sets on Rudd's ratings lifter Ross Peake
22. First Speech to Parliament
23. What's Wrong with the Right ; Howard's warriors sweep all before them
24. New Labor Leader Outlines Plan ; Labor elects new leader
25. ALP's pillar of wisdom
26. We won't abandon ally: Rudd
27. Afghan, Iraq wars are not the same: Rudd
28. Rudd: Hamas, Hezbollah and Lebanon in ‘violation’
29. Kevin Rudd visits Israel
30. Howard won't change WorkChoices laws, Rudd says
31. Labor unveils new IR plan ; Back to fair and flexible for boss and worker Kevin Rudd
32. ALP's new man puts his faith on display
33. Kevin Rudd talks about his faith ; Kevin Rudd
34. Faith in Politics ; Christianity and Politics ; Anglican leader joins IR debate
35. Tony Jones speaks to Kevin Rudd
36. The gospel according to Kevin
37. Tirade 'shows Govt fears Rudd's rise' ; RU486 for Australia?

See also

★ Shadow Cabinet (Australia)