: Kevin Rudd Leader of the Opposition Incumbent Assumed office 2006 Preceded by Kim Beazley Succeeded by Incumbent Born 21 September 1957Nambour, QueenslandMilne, Glenn (3 December 2006).
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957 in Nambour, Queensland), Australian politician is the leader of the Australian Labor Party, and Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Federal Parliament. He has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 1998, representing the Division of Griffith, Queensland.
Early biography
Rudd grew up in Eumundi, near Noosa Heads and Nambour. Dux of Nambour High School and a boarder at Marist College Ashgrove, Brisbane, he graduated with First Class Honours in Arts (Asian Studies) from the Australian National University in Canberra where he majored in Chinese (in which he is fluent) and Chinese history and resided at Burgmann College. A critical influence was the death of his share farmer (and Country Party member) father when he was eleven and the hardships this forced upon his family.
Early career
In 1981 Rudd joined the Australian Diplomatic Service, where he served until 1988. He and his wife spent most of the 1980s overseas posted at the Australian embassies in Sweden and later China. Returning to Australia in 1988, he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Labor Opposition Leader in Queensland, Wayne Goss, a position he held until 1991, when Goss, by then Premier, appointed him Director-General of the Cabinet Office. These positions gave him experience of a wide range of domestic issues in addition to his experience in foreign affairs.
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 he unsuccessfully contested the federal seat of Griffith at the 1996 federal election. In 1998 he contested the seat again, successfully.
Federal politics
Following his 1998 election success, Rudd was moved 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 their support for the United States in the 2003 Iraq war, 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.[Interview: Shadow Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. Transcripts by category: Politics. Seven Network (4 April 2004). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.]
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 commit himself to either candidate, though it was believed that he voted for Beazley. When Crean finally resigned in late November, Rudd was considered a possible candidate for the Labor leadership, but announced that he would not be a candidate 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. After Latham led Labor to a heavy defeat at the October 2004 federal election, Rudd was aga n 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. 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. 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.
Leadership challenge
Image:PICT5191.JPG Kevin Rudd and his Deputy, 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,[Editorial: ALP in fight with the wrong enemy. The Australian (02 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.][Federal voting intention and leaders’ ratings. Newspoll, The Australian (30 November 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.] he announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party in a Beazley-announced leadership ballot.[Rudd, Beazley to lobby colleagues. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2 December 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.] 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.
[Rudd ousts Beazley. The Age. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.]
Political views
He 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.[Rudd: Hamas, Hezbollah and Lebanon in ‘violation’. Australian Jewish News (18 July 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.] This was seen as a step towards mending relations between the Jewish community and the ALP following the comments of several backbenchers.[Kevin Rudd visits Israel. The World Today. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (25 July 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-04.]
While not attracting the wider media attention of, for example, Tony Abbott's Catholicism, Rudd is open about his Christianity[Woodall, Helen (November 2003). Kevin Rudd talks about his faith. The Melbourne Anglican. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.][Egan, Carmel (3 December 2006). Kevin Rudd. The Age. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.] and has given a number of interviews to the Australian religious press on the topic including one, following an essay he wrote, with ABC's Lateline program where he cited Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian pastor and pacifist in Nazi Germany, as a man from whom he draws inspiration.
Rudd is critical of economist Friedrich Hayek.[Hartcher, Peter (14 October 2006). Howard's warriors sweep all before them. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.]
External links
References
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia |
