Australia - Head of Government

The Hon Kevin Michael Rudd was sworn into office as Prime Minister of Australia on 3 December 2007 following his victory at the general election held on 24 November.

Mr Rudd has been the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since December 2006. He first joined the ALP at the age of 15 in 1972. Mr Rudd was appointed to Labor’s Shadow Cabinet in 2001 and was Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs until 2005. Mr Rudd has been a Member of Parliament representing Griffith since 1998, when he first served as Chair of the Parliamentary Labor Party’s Committee on National Security and Trade.

Before entering politics, Mr Rudd was a consultant with KPMG Australia from 1996 to 1998. He had previously served as Director-General of the Cabinet Office of the Queensland State Government from 1992 to 1995. Prior to that, Mr Rudd was Chief of Staff in the Office of the Queensland Premier Wayne Goss from 1989 to 1992. Earlier on in 1988, Mr Rudd also held the post of Chief of Staff in Mr Goss’s office when he was then the Queensland State Opposition Leader.

Mr Rudd attained the post of Assistant Secretary in the Policy Planning Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 1988 after rising through the ranks since embarking on a diplomatic career in 1981 where he went on to serve in the Australian Embassies in Stockholm, Sweden, and Beijing, China.

Mr Rudd has a BA (Hons, 1st class) in Asian Studies from the Australian National University, Canberra, majoring in Chinese language and history. He has written extensively on Chinese politics and foreign policy, as well as on Australia-Asia relations and globalis ation. He speaks fluent Mandarin.

Mr Rudd was born on 21 September 1957 in Nambour, Queensland.