Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to rise in this place to pay tribute to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Kevin Rudd's prime ministership was one of towering achievements, but on a personal level—as the member for Riverina has said—Kevin Rudd's time in this place also touched many of us. I remember an event which I organised for Labor members of parliament where we talked about engaging with one's community. At that forum, the member for Griffith told the story of Rudd Bikes, and of how Rudd Bikes provided him with just one of many ways of engaging with his local community and making a real, tangible difference, by providing a BMX bike to a child whose family might not have been able to afford one. In the Queensland floods, Kevin Rudd was out there, working with sandbags, with his local community—the community that he knew so well.

On the evening I was preselected as the member for Fraser, I decided that it might be nice to buy a gift for my campaign manager for the hard work that he had done. And so, between the announcement of the preselection result and a post-election party, I decided I would stop off at the Dendy Cinemas in the city and pick up a couple of gold passes for my campaign manager, Dan Ashcroft, to enjoy. Having bought those gold passes, I immediately stepped back, turned around and saw Kevin Rudd there with, I think, his son Marcus. Without thinking anything more of it, I went up to him and blurted out: 'Kevin, I have just been preselected as the member for Fraser. I am delighted to be joining your team.' He looked slightly nonplussed at this, and it was only as he stepped away that I realised what this scene must have looked like. Kevin Rudd must have thought to himself, 'So, you have just been preselected as the member for Fraser, and now you are going to the movies—on your own.' It was one of those moments where you realise that you have made a terrible mistake, and you can't take it back.

The reforms of the Rudd government will stand tall. Many have spoken in this place about the apology, that significant act of contrition to the stolen generation. I think the most lasting legacy of the Rudd government is steering Australia through the global financial crisis, a crisis where unusually we got a telegram from the other side of the world in effect saying, 'The slump is about to hit. You have a couple of months to put something in place.' Australia listened to the experts, listened to Ken Henry's advice, 'Go early, go hard, go households,' and got that timely, temporary, targeted stimulus to households in December 2008, well ahead of the stimulus that was reaching households in many other parts of the world. That quick action meant that Australia did not slide into recession, one which almost every economic commentator at that time thought was inevitable. We avoided recession.

I know the impact of recession all too keenly, having graduated from high school in 1990 in the teeth of the last Australian recession. Recessions have a huge human toll on young people who do not have an opportunity to get a job, sometimes for years, and that corrodes their sense of self-worth and their skills. Australia averted that in large part because Kevin Rudd was then our prime minister. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands owe Kevin Rudd a debt of gratitude. Many small businesses which exist now would have gone to the wall were it not for the quick actions of the Rudd government—supported in the case of that first stimulus package by then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull.

Kevin Rudd's legacy is a proud one on the international stage. He strode it with the pride of a Doc Evatt or a Gareth Evans in the great Australian Labor tradition of internationalism and engagement in the councils of the world. I remember a foreign aid forum which Kevin ran at the Australian National University with me and with Gai Brodtmann, the member for Canberra. It was packed. There was standing room only and Kevin Rudd impressed everyone in the room not just with his passion for foreign aid but with his knowledge of the issues and his evident compassion for the world's poorest. It was Kevin at his best, understanding the issues but sensitive to those helped by government policy. He clearly took great pride in increasing Australia's contribution to dealing with world poverty, bringing it up to the average for the developed world. Many in that room were informed and impressed by the power of his oratory on foreign aid.

Kevin Rudd has many things in front of him. He has mentioned his apology foundation. I am sure there will be international organisations clamouring for an opportunity to have him assist them with his knowledge of the world and with his contacts. I have benefited personally from reading many of the speeches Kevin Rudd made at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. He is so well informed about China and its leadership and, through the leadership transition, was thinking creatively about the transitions still to come in China. Many of us in this place will continue to draw on Kevin Rudd's expertise, knowledge and experience. I wish Kevin and Therese and their children Jessica, Nicholas and Marcus all the best for this next stage in their lives. Kevin Rudd has great contributions to make to Australia and to the world and I look forward to seeing them over the decades to come.

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