Kevin Rudd
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Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957), Australian politician, has been a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives since 1998, representing the Division of Griffith, Queensland.
Rudd grew up in Eumundi, near Noosa Heads and Nambour, Queensland. Dux of Nambour High School and a boarder at Marist Brothers College in 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. 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.
In 1981 Rudd joined the Australian Diplomatic Service, where he served until 1988. 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.
After the 2001 elections Rudd was elected to the Opposition front bench 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. [1]
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 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. 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.
While not attracting the wider media attention of, for example, Tony Abbott's Catholicism, Rudd is open about his Anglican Christianity and has given a number of interviews to the Australian religious press on the topic.