‘Farm boy’ takes over Australia’s politics
Nov 26, 2007
Kevin Rudd scarcely imagined as his family slept in a car during his childhood that one day the keys to the prime minister’s mansion may be his.
Kevin Rudd scarcely imagined as his family slept in a car during his childhood that one day the keys to the prime minister’s mansion may be his.
Australia's new prime minister, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat who shot out of political obscurity to seize power on the weekend, is no traditional left-wing Labour leader.
The soft-spoken Rudd, 50, bills himself as an fiscal conservative whose economic policies are almost as conservative as those of the man he ousted.
Rudd galvanised his supporters with the belief they could finally oust Prime Minister John Howard after four election defeats and 11 years in the political wilderness, and he was proved right when he won in a landslide on Saturday.
The youthful-looking Rudd was hardly known by Australians when he took over as Australian Labour Party leader just 11 months ago, inheriting a party split by factional divisions and seemingly incapable of denting Howard's popularity.
Rudd, seen in Canberra as a foreign policy wonk, appeared an unlikely saviour for the party that has long prided itself on its working class roots, even if, like Britain’s Labour Party, it has shifted into a centre-left grouping.
While he likes to describe himself as a “farm boy from Queenslandâ€, he was also seen as too intellectual and lacking the common touch Australians prefer in their political leaders.
Rudd’s fresh-faced appearance meant he was disparagingly referred to as “Harry Potter†by some within his own party. But he rated himself “a very determined bastard†ready to take on Australia's second-longest serving prime minister.
Rudd endured a tough childhood, forced to temporarily sleep in a car aged 11 when his family was evicted from their Queensland farm following his father’s death in a road accident.
He said that experience shaped the views on social justice that led him to run for federal parliament, where he was elected in 1998 on his second attempt.
Before arriving in Canberra, he was a senior bureaucrat for the state Labour government in Queensland and had a lengthy career as a diplomat, including postings to Stockholm and Beijing, where he became an ardent Sinophile.
Married with three children, his wife Therese is a millionaire businesswoman in her own right — a fact that plays well with female voters, Australian National University political science professor John Warhurst told AFP.
Analysts said that Rudd had given his campaign a realistic chance of toppling Howard by portraying himself as a younger, more up-to-date version of his rival to the swing voters who would decide the election.
He describes himself as a “fiscal conservative†and speaks openly about his Christian faith.
“He doesn’t spook the horses and he’s seen as a pretty safe pair of hands on the economy," Warhurst said.
Rudd frustrated the government by adopting many of its policies and refusing to be distracted on issues such as race relations and civil liberties.
Instead, he differed from Howard’s platform on only a few key issues seen as vote winners, including withdrawing Australian combat troops from Iraq by mid-2008 and ditching controversial government workplace reforms.
He also emphasised his potential for generational change, campaigning on issues such as global warming and broadband Internet access, where the 68-year-old Howard often appeared uncomfortable.
Rudd remained unflustered in the face of a series of attacks on his credibility, including questions about his wife’s business and his handling of sex abuse claims at a juvenile prison when he was a Queensland bureaucrat.
Details of a drunken trip Rudd made to a New York strip club in 2003 were also leaked to the media during the campaign, but that backfired when the bookish leader’s opinion polls ratings went up in a country that puts pride in “blokish†antics.
But he is frequently accused of being overly sensitive to media criticism and his office tightly controls what his subordinates, even highly-experienced shadow ministers, say in public.
Warhurst said Rudd is supremely confident in his abilities.
He has already proved he is at ease among leaders of other nations, upstaging Howard at a meeting of Asia Pacific leaders in Sydney last month by conversing in Mandarin with China’s President Hu Jintao.
AFP
Australia's new prime minister, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat who shot out of political obscurity to seize power on the weekend, is no traditional left-wing Labour leader.
The soft-spoken Rudd, 50, bills himself as an fiscal conservative whose economic policies are almost as conservative as those of the man he ousted.
Rudd galvanised his supporters with the belief they could finally oust Prime Minister John Howard after four election defeats and 11 years in the political wilderness, and he was proved right when he won in a landslide on Saturday.
The youthful-looking Rudd was hardly known by Australians when he took over as Australian Labour Party leader just 11 months ago, inheriting a party split by factional divisions and seemingly incapable of denting Howard's popularity.
Rudd, seen in Canberra as a foreign policy wonk, appeared an unlikely saviour for the party that has long prided itself on its working class roots, even if, like Britain’s Labour Party, it has shifted into a centre-left grouping.
While he likes to describe himself as a “farm boy from Queenslandâ€, he was also seen as too intellectual and lacking the common touch Australians prefer in their political leaders.
Rudd’s fresh-faced appearance meant he was disparagingly referred to as “Harry Potter†by some within his own party. But he rated himself “a very determined bastard†ready to take on Australia's second-longest serving prime minister.
Rudd endured a tough childhood, forced to temporarily sleep in a car aged 11 when his family was evicted from their Queensland farm following his father’s death in a road accident.
He said that experience shaped the views on social justice that led him to run for federal parliament, where he was elected in 1998 on his second attempt.
Before arriving in Canberra, he was a senior bureaucrat for the state Labour government in Queensland and had a lengthy career as a diplomat, including postings to Stockholm and Beijing, where he became an ardent Sinophile.
Married with three children, his wife Therese is a millionaire businesswoman in her own right — a fact that plays well with female voters, Australian National University political science professor John Warhurst told AFP.
Analysts said that Rudd had given his campaign a realistic chance of toppling Howard by portraying himself as a younger, more up-to-date version of his rival to the swing voters who would decide the election.
He describes himself as a “fiscal conservative†and speaks openly about his Christian faith.
“He doesn’t spook the horses and he’s seen as a pretty safe pair of hands on the economy," Warhurst said.
Rudd frustrated the government by adopting many of its policies and refusing to be distracted on issues such as race relations and civil liberties.
Instead, he differed from Howard’s platform on only a few key issues seen as vote winners, including withdrawing Australian combat troops from Iraq by mid-2008 and ditching controversial government workplace reforms.
He also emphasised his potential for generational change, campaigning on issues such as global warming and broadband Internet access, where the 68-year-old Howard often appeared uncomfortable.
Rudd remained unflustered in the face of a series of attacks on his credibility, including questions about his wife’s business and his handling of sex abuse claims at a juvenile prison when he was a Queensland bureaucrat.
Details of a drunken trip Rudd made to a New York strip club in 2003 were also leaked to the media during the campaign, but that backfired when the bookish leader’s opinion polls ratings went up in a country that puts pride in “blokish†antics.
But he is frequently accused of being overly sensitive to media criticism and his office tightly controls what his subordinates, even highly-experienced shadow ministers, say in public.
Warhurst said Rudd is supremely confident in his abilities.
He has already proved he is at ease among leaders of other nations, upstaging Howard at a meeting of Asia Pacific leaders in Sydney last month by conversing in Mandarin with China’s President Hu Jintao.
AFP