The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20140105155938/http://australianpolitics.com:80/tag/kevin-rudd


Speaker Bronwyn Bishop Reports Kevin Rudd’s Resignation To The House

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, today reported to the House that she had received the resignation of Kevin Rudd as member for Griffith.

Bishop

Rudd’s resignation was received on November 22. Under Section 37 of the Constitution, a member may resign in writing to the Speaker.

Parliamentary practice and convention requires that the Speaker inform the House of resignations and other matters relating to the operation of the chamber.

Rudd’s departure brings a formal end to a parliamentary career that began in 1998 and included two periods as Prime Minister.

Under Section 33 of the Constitution, the Speaker is empowered to issue a writ for the by-election to fill the vacancy in Griffith. In practice, the government will decide when it wishes to hold the by-election.

The by-election is most likely to be held in early February, prior to the first sitting of the House for 2014. A period of 33 days must elapse following the issue of the writ before the poll can take place.

  • Listen to Bishop’s announcement (28s)

    Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

  • Watch Bishop (38s)

Rudd Formally Resigns As Member For Griffith

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, has confirmed that she has received a letter of resignation from Kevin Rudd.

The former prime minister’s resignation as the Labor member for Griffith in Queensland brings to an end a 15-year parliamentary career.

Rudd was first elected on October 3, 1998. He served in five full parliaments, winning re-election in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013. He was twice prime minister, defeating John Howard in 2007, then losing the leadership to Julia Gillard in 2010, before replacing her in June this year and then losing the 2013 election. He relinquished the ALP leadership on election night. [Read more...]


A Week After Announcing His Retirement, Kevin Rudd Still Hasn’t Resigned

A week after announcing his resignation from the House of Representatives, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not yet submitted his resignation to the Speaker.

RuddUnder Section 37 of the Constitution, a member resigns “by writing addressed to the Speaker”. As of close of business on Wednesday night (November 20), the Speaker had made no announcement to the House of Rudd’s resignation as the member for Griffith.

Rudd’s biographical details also remain on the Parliament House website.

Rudd has not appeared in the House chamber since announcing his resignation last week. He has not voted in any of the divisions called since then.

Given that a minimum 33 days notice is required for a by-election, it is now not possible for a by-election this year. The end of January is now the likely earliest date for the by-election. [Read more...]


Keating: Rudd Preserved Labor As A Fighting Force

Paul Keating has paid tribute to Kevin Rudd for preserving the ALP as a “fighting force” and praised the former prime minister’s policies during the global financial crisis as “an instance of international exceptionalism”.

KeatingKeating, prime minister from 1991 until 1996, said Rudd had given “profound service” to the Labor Party. Without Rudd’s “energy and leadership”, the party may not have been able to defeat John Howard, Keating said.

On Rudd’s toppling of Julia Gillard, Keating said: “Without traversing the hills and hollows along the policy trail in office, he returned to the prime ministership to re-base the party’s electoral standing and its parliamentary numbers, preserving it as a fighting force.”

Keating’s fulsome statement contains one factual error. Not all of Rudd’s front bench members were returned at the election. Whilst all members of the Cabinet held their seats, the Assistant Treasurer, David Bradbury, was defeated in Lindsay, and the Minister for Sport, Senator Don Farrell, failed to be re-elected in South Australia.

Statement from Paul Keating.

Remarks by PJ Keating

I should like to acknowledge the profound service which Kevin Rudd has given the Labor Party.

Notwithstanding the 11 years which the Howard government had had in office, without the energy and leadership provided by Kevin Rudd, Labor may not have been able to have turned the opportunity into victory.

As a consequence, Labor had another six years in government. An important six years. Added to the 13 years of Labor between 1983 and 1996, this has meant in the 30 years since 1983, Labor has had 19 of them in office.

Kevin Rudd opened his period of office with his now famous ‘apology’ and not long thereafter, saved Australia from the fate of every other industrial economy – a deep and prolonged recession. If his government had been elected for no other reason but to have achieved this, it would have achieved much: an instance of international exceptionalism.

And without traversing the hills and hollows along the policy trail in office, he returned to the prime ministership to re-base the party’s electoral standing and its parliamentary numbers, preserving it as a fighting force.

And I know, notwithstanding the defeat at the last election, Kevin Rudd is comforted by the fact that all of his front bench members were returned to make the continuing case for Labor.

Kevin Rudd has much to be proud of. The Labor Party stands in his debt.

Sydney
14 November 2013


Kevin Rudd Resigns From Parliament

Kevin Rudd has announced to the House of Representatives that he is resigning his seat of Griffith immediately.

Rudd

Rudd made a 15-minute statement to the House just after 8pm tonight. Towards the end of his sometimes tearful speech, he urged parliamentarians “to be gentle with each other”. He concluded with one more iteration of “got to zip”.

Fulsome tributes were then paid by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Remarks were also made by Joe Hockey, Anthony Albanese, Christopher Pyne, Chris Bowen, Malcolm Turnbull, Tanya Plibersek and Bronwyn Bishop. [Read more...]


Hard Days And Nights: The Final 147 Days Of The Gillard Government

The Parliamentary Library has today published a research paper examining the final 147 days of the Gillard government.

The paper is written by Brenton Holmes, from the Politics and Public Administration Section of the Library.

The paper draws heavily from contemporaneous newspaper reports and the writings of journalists and other commentators. It contains 240 footnotes, many with web links. It includes chronologies of the Gillard government and tables of opinion poll results durings its term of office.

The paper is provided here in accordance with its Creative Commons licence.

Click the arrow in the viewer below for an enlarged view.




George Wright: ALP’s 2013 Federal Election Analysis

The ALP National Secretary, George Wright, has addressed the National Press Club on the outcome of the 2013 federal election.

Wright said the party’s polling had showed it was likely to lose more than 40 seats and be reduced to 30 seats under Julia Gillard. He said the ALP “cauterised” its losses by returning to Kevin Rudd. “He did make a difference,” Wright said. In the end, the ALP lost 17 seats and will have 55 members in the new House.

Wright

Disunity and division crippled the ALP’s election chances, Wright maintained. He said issues such as the carbon tax, aslyum seekers and debt were lesser order issues than Labor’s conduct in office.

Wright maintained that the party is in good shape to make an electoral comeback under Bill Shorten. He quoted one commentator who said the party had pulled off “a Dunkirk” by losing but keeping an army intact to fight another day. Wright drew a comparison with the Whitlam opposition after the 1975 Dismissal election and argued the ALP could be back in government sooner than people think. [Read more...]