Kevin Rudd (born 21 September 1957) was Prime Minister of Australia from 3 December 2007 to 24 June 2010 (succeeding John Howard and preceding Julia Gillard) and from 27 June to 18 September 2013 (succeeding Gillard and precedinng Tony Abbott). He was leader of the Australian Labor Party from 2006 to 2010 and in 2013.
Biography[]
Kevin Rudd was born in Nambour, Queensland, Australia in 1957, and he worked as a diplomat, political staffer, and public servant before being elected to the House of Representatives for Griffith in 1998. In 2006, he successfully challenged Kim Beazley for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party, overtaking John Howard's Liberal Party of Australia coalition government. He won the 2007 election by a landslide and signed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, apologized to the Aborigines for the relocation of the "Stolen Generations", withdrew Australia's remaining soldiers from the Iraq War, and avoided the Great Recession with economic stimulus packages. However, the Resource Super Profits Tax and the deferral of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme led to a drop in his approval ratings, and Julia Gillard successfully challenged him for the leadership in 2010. He was promoted back to cabinet as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and he returned to the premiership in 2013 after successfully challenging Gillard. His second term lasted just three months, but he became the first Australian prime minister to support same-sex marriage. Although Labor had a rise in the opinion polls due to Rudd's return, his party lost the 2013 elections. He retired that same year, and he worked for nonprofits.