Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and from June to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the Labor Party. From 2023 to 2026, Rudd was the ambassador of Australia to the United States.
Born on the Sunshine Coast, Rudd graduated from the Australian National University in 1981 with honours in Chinese studies, and is fluent in Mandarin. Before politics, he worked as a diplomat and public servant for the Queensland state government of Wayne Goss. Rudd was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1998 federal election, winning the Queensland division of Griffith. He was promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2001 as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. He assumed leadership of the Labor Party in December 2006 by defeating Kim Beazley in a leadership spill, becoming leader of the opposition. Rudd led Labor to a landslide victory at the 2007 election; his government's earliest acts included ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and delivering the first national apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples for the Stolen Generations. His government responded to the 2008 financial crisis, implementing economic stimulus packages that resulted in Australia becoming one of the only developed countries to avoid the Great Recession. Rudd's government also oversaw the establishment of the National Broadband Network (NBN), the launch of the Digital Education Revolution and Building the Education Revolution programs, dismantling WorkChoices, and withdrew Australian troops from the Iraq War.
By 2010, Rudd's leadership had faltered due to a loss of support among the Labor caucus and failure to pass key legislation like the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. He resigned as prime minister in June 2010 after his deputy Julia Gillard challenged him in a leadership spill. He was replaced by Gillard as prime minister, who later appointed him as Minister for Foreign Affairs in her government. Leadership tensions between Rudd and Gillard continued, leading to Rudd resigning as Foreign Minister in February 2012 to unsuccessfully challenge her for the leadership of the party. After further leadership speculation, Rudd defeated Gillard in a final leadership ballot in June 2013, becoming prime minister for the second time. However, Labor were defeated in the 2013 election, ending his second term after only two months.
Rudd retired from parliament following the election, but he has stayed active in political discourse and academia, completing a DPhil at Jesus College, Oxford, in 2022. He has been involved in a number of international organizations, advocating for issues such as China–United States relations and Australian media diversity. He was appointed as Australia's ambassador to the U.S. by the Albanese government in March 2023, with Rudd choosing to exit the role in March 2026.
Early life and education Rudd is of English and Irish descent. His father's great-grandparents were English: Thomas Rudd and Mary Cable. Thomas had been convicted of stealing a bag of sugar, arriving in NSW on board the Earl Cornwallis in 1801. Mary had been sentenced to transportation for stealing a bolt of cloth, arriving in the colony in 1804. His mother's grandparents, Owen Cashin and Hannah Maher, who were both born in Ireland, met and married in Brisbane in 1887.
Rudd was born in Nambour, Queensland, to Albert ("Bert") and Margaret (née DeVere) Rudd, the youngest son of four children, and grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Eumundi.Macklin 2007 At an early age (5–7), he contracted rheumatic fever and spent a considerable time at home convalescing. It damaged his heart, in particular the valves, for which he has thus far had two aortic valve replacement surgeries, but this was discovered only some 12 years later. Farm life, which required the use of horses and guns, is where he developed his lifelong love of horse riding and shooting clay targets. He attended Eumundi State School.
When Rudd was 11, his father, a share farmer and Country Party member, died. Rudd states that the family was required to leave the farm amidst financial difficulty between two and three weeks after the death, though the family of the landowner states that the Rudds didn't have to leave for almost six months. Following this traumatic childhood and despite familial connections with the Country Party, Rudd joined the Australian Labor Party in 1972 at the age of 15.
Rudd boarded at Marist College Ashgrove in Brisbane, although these years were not happy due to the indignity of poverty and reliance on charity; he was known to be a "charity case" due to his father's sudden death. He has since described the school as "tough, harsh, unforgiving, institutional Catholicism of the old school". Two years later, after she retrained as a nurse, Rudd's mother moved the family to Nambour, and Rudd rebuilt his standing through study and scholastic application and was dux of Nambour State High School in 1974. In that year, he was also the state winner of the "Youth Speaks for Australia" public speaking competition sponsored by the Jaycees. His future Treasurer Wayne Swan attended the same school at the same time, although they did not know each other as Swan was three years ahead.
Rudd studied at the Australian National University in Canberra, where he resided at Burgmann College and graduated with Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) with First-Class Honours. He majored in Chinese language and Chinese history, and became proficient in Mandarin. His Chinese name is Lù Kèwén ().; ; ; Rudd completed his BA in 1978, deferring his honours component for a year during which time he took a study trip to Taiwan. He also volunteered as a research assistant with the Zadok Institute for Christianity and at a St Vincent de Paul drug rehabilitation centre.
Rudd's thesis on Chinese democracy activist Wei Jingsheng was supervised by Pierre Ryckmans, the eminent Belgian-Australian sinologist. During his studies, Rudd did housecleaning for political commentator Laurie Oakes to earn extra money. In 1980 he continued his Chinese studies at the Mandarin Training Center of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan. Delivering the 2008 Gough Whitlam Lecture at the University of Sydney on The Reforming Centre of Australian Politics, Rudd praised the former Labor prime minister for implementing educational reforms, saying he was:... a kid who lived Gough Whitlam's dream that every child should have a desk with a lamp on it where he or she could study. A kid whose mum told him after the 1972 election that it might just now be possible for the likes of him to go to university. A kid from the country of no particular means and of no political pedigree who could therefore dream that one day he could make a contribution to our national political life.;
Early diplomatic career Rudd joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1981 as a graduate trainee. His first posting was as Third Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Stockholm from November 1981 to December 1983 where he organised an Australian film festival, represented Australia at the Stockholm Conference on Acidification of the Environment, and reported on Soviet gas pipelines and European energy security. In 1984, Rudd was appointed Second Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, and promoted to First Secretary in 1985, where he was responsible for analysing Politburo politics, economic reform, arms control and human rights under Ross Garnaut, David Irvine and Geoff Raby. He returned to Canberra in 1987 and was assigned to the Policy Planning Branch, then the Staffing Policy Section, and was selected to serve as the Office of National Assessments Liaison Officer at the Australian High Commission in London commencing in 1989 but declined.
Entry into politics In 1988, he was appointed chief of staff to the opposition leader in Queensland, Wayne Goss. He remained in that role when Goss was elected Premier 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. 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".;
The Goss Government saw its majority slashed in 1995, before losing it altogether after a by-election one year later. After Goss' resignation, Rudd left the Queensland Government and was hired as a Senior China Consultant by the accounting firm KPMG Australia. While in that position, he won selection to be the Labor candidate for the seat of Griffith at the 1996 federal election. Despite being endorsed by the retiring Labor MP, Ben Humphreys, Rudd was defeated by Liberal Graeme McDougall. Rudd stood in the same seat against McDougall in the 1998 election, this time winning on the fifth count.
Member of Parliament (1998–2007)
Rudd made his maiden speech to the House of Representatives as the new Member for the Division of Griffith on 11 November 1998. It drew heavily his personal experience of poverty to argue for the need for strong social security, public hospitals, and public housing.
Shadow Minister (2001–2006) Following Labor's defeat in the 2001 federal election, Rudd was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet and appointed Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. In 2002, he met with British intelligence and helped define the position that Labor would take in regards to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
There is no debate or dispute as to whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. He does. There's no dispute as whether he's in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. He is.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein he would criticise the Howard government over its support for the United States, while maintaining Labor's position of support for the Australian-American alliance.
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.
Rudd's policy experience and parliamentary performances during the Iraq War made him one of the best-known Labor members. When Labor Leader Simon Crean was challenged by his predecessor Kim Beazley, Rudd did not publicly commit himself to either candidate. When Crean resigned, Rudd was considered a possible candidate for the Labor leadership, however he announced that he would not run in the leadership ballot, and would instead vote for Kim Beazley.
Rudd was predicted by some commentators to be demoted or moved as a result of his support for Beazley following the election of Mark Latham as Leader, 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.
When Latham suddenly resigned in January 2005, Rudd was in Indonesia and refused to say whether he would be a candidate for the Labor leadership.
Leader of the Opposition (2006–2007)