Kevin Rudd

The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP served as Prime Minister of Australia between 2007 and 2010. He continues to serve as a member of the Australian Parliament.

The first act of Mr. Rudd’s government was to sign the Kyoto accord and as Prime Minister Mr. Rudd was an active participant in the Bali and Copenhagen meetings of the Conference of the Parties on climate change. During Mr. Rudd’s time as Prime Minister, the cause of reconciliation with Indigenous Australians was advanced through a number of government programs and the formal apology to the ‘stolen generations’ as the first Parliamentary action of the new government in February 2008.

Mr. Rudd’s government for the first time embraced the Millennium Development Goals as the formal framework governing Australia’s international development assistance policy. For the first time Australia committed to an overseas development assistance target of 0.5% of GNI. This has resulted in a major expansion of Australian development programs around the world.

Prior to entering politics, Mr. Rudd served as the Director General of the Cabinet Office in the Australian State Government of Queensland. He began his career as a professional diplomat service in both Stockholm and Beijing. Mr. Rudd speaks fluent Chinese.