POLITICAL VOICES

Kevin Rudd

Prime Minister of Australia (2007-2010, 2013), Member of Club de Madrid

He served as leader of the Australian Labor Party from 2006-2010. The Rudd Government’s first acts included signing the Kyoto Protocol and delivering an apology to Indigenous Australians for the Stolen Generations. The previous government’s industrial relations legislation, WorkChoices, was largely dismantled, Australia’s remaining Iraq War combat personnel were withdrawn, and the “Australia 2020 Summit” was held. In response to the global financial crisis, the government provided economic stimulus packages, and Australia was one of the few developed countries to avoid the late-2000s recession.

Following his first term as prime minister, Rudd was appointed minister for Foreign Affairs in the Gillard administration. In February 2014, he was named a Senior Fellow with John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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Action

A historical event took place on February 13th, 2008 when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. On that day, Parliament acknowledged the existence and the impact of the past policies and practices of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families and apologized for it. Australia’s leaders across the political spectrum chose dignity, hope and respect as the guiding principles for the relationship with the nations’ first peoples. The Apology has also been prominent in setting the foundation for a new agenda in Indigenous affairs that aims to overcome the disadvantage and discrimination Indigenous Australians continue to face today. This new agenda is based on a new partnership between the government and Indigenous people. During meetings held in December 2007 and March 2008 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) adopted six targets to improve the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians.

Relevant discourse

As part of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s February 2008 Apology to Indigenous Australians, he proposed to establish “a commission to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity”, all in a way that respects their rights to self-determination”.

At the 2015 Australian National University Reconciliation Lecture in Canberra, Rudd said: “ Unless and until our processes of reconciliation draw towards completion, as I believe they must, we are also failing to unleash the full human, economic and political potential for nearly half a million of our Indigenous brothers and sisters. That is a loss to the nation. It is a loss to Indigenous peoples themselves. It is a loss to us all. Beyond the simple words of an apology, actions must be taken to bring about a level of restorative justice, either for the individuals who have been wronged, or in the case of Indigenous Australians, for Indigenous Australia as a whole. The national apology delivered seven years ago was incomplete. Actions have to match our words”

Kevin Rudd's channels

Kevin Rudd is leader on:

Innovation

Political participation & representation of ethnic minorities

Reconciliation and social justice