Rudd government (2013)
The second Rudd government was the federal executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party. It commenced on 27 June 2013 and ceased on 18 September 2013. Rudd had previously served a term as Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010 and been replaced by his deputy Julia Gillard, following an internal party spill. Rudd regained the Labor Party leadership by successfully re-challenging Gillard in a June 2013 party spill. On 5 August, Rudd called an election for 7 September 2013, which resulted in the defeat of his government by the Liberal/National Coalition led by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Background First Rudd government Kevin Rudd, born in rural Queensland in 1957, a former diplomat and senior advisor to Queensland Premier Wayne Goss, entered the Australian parliament in 1998 as Member for Griffith and was appointed Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister in 2001. Rudd teamed successfully with Julia Gillard to challenge Opposition Leader Kim Beazley and Deputy Leader Jenny Macklin respectively for leadership and deputy leadership of the Australian Labor Party and became Leader of the Opposition in 2006. Rudd went on to lead Labor to victory at the 2007 federal election, defeating the incumbent Coalition government led by John Howard. Labor had been in opposition for eleven years, and despite an initial period of popularity, Rudd served just two-and-a-half years in office, becoming the first in a line of Australian leaders to be removed by their own party during their first term as prime minister. In office, Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol, offered a Parliamentary apology to indigenous children removed from their parents by the state up to the mid-20th century, and organised the Australia 2020 Summit. In economic policy, his government re-regulated the labour market by rescinding the Howard government's Workchoices reforms and responded to the Global Financial Crisis with a large stimulus spending program. Rudd also dismantled the three pillars of the Howard government's asylum seeker processing systemoffshore processing, temporary protection visas, and turning back unauthorised boats at seadubbing them "ineffectual and wasteful". By 2010, Rudd's premiership faced difficulties. Following the failure of the government's insulation program and amidst controversy regarding the implementation of a tax on mining, the failure of the government to secure passage of its Carbon Trading Scheme and some policy debate about immigration policy, significant disaffection had arisen within Labor as to Rudd's leadership style and direction. A series of published and private opinion polls indicated that the Rudd government's popularity had declined to a potentially election-losing position. Rudd was challenged by Deputy Prime Minister Gillard to a party leadership ballot, which was held on the morning of 24 June 2010. Rudd did not stand for re-election, and Gillard was elected unopposed as Labor leader and sought her commission to be appointed as Prime Minister, thus ending the first Rudd government. The Gillard government narrowly survived the 2010 federal election, forming a minority government with the support of four crossbench MPs after the election produced a hung parliament. Gillard