Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

Last Wednesday night, Kevin Rudd announced that his time in this place had come to an end. His announcement, I suspect, caught most of us by surprise but reflecting on it now I believe he made the announcement knowing that his time here and what he had been hoping to achieve had indeed come to an end. I believe that for any member to know when their time is up is in itself a reflection and a strength of their character. It says much about their own understanding of their ability and their own understanding of what is proper and right to do.

It is often said, and has been said perhaps even more in recent days, that politics is a tough profession, tough on the individuals and even tougher on family life and family members, who are not in a position, like each and every one of us, to respond, whether it be in this place or through the media, but who nevertheless have to endure the attacks sustained on the family member who happens to be in public life. It is something that often has its own very severe price. As we all know in this place, family members often are the ones who are the worst affected as a result of the work of someone who puts themselves up for public office.

Few people that I have known in public life, and I have known such people now for decades, have endured the pressures, the scrutiny and the criticism that Kevin endured, particularly after 2007, when he became Australia's Prime Minister. Perhaps Julia Gillard was in a similar situation as well and equally endured a great deal. It was a kind of criticism and public scrutiny that I had never, ever seen applied to any other public leader prior to either of those two people. And yet they both worked right through that and continued with their focus on the job which they had been elected to do.

For Kevin it was indeed a huge task. It was a mammoth job. He had just been elected at the end of 2007 after a long period of conservative government in this place. He had a massive social reform agenda that he was committed to and had committed to in the lead-up to the 2007 election, and then almost immediately on being elected he was confronted with the global financial recession. Managing the two, I believe, was a challenge that few leaders of this country have ever had to deal with. Yet, in the relatively short time that he was in office, I believe that he did manage the two and managed them very, very well, because, whilst on one hand Australia was shielded from the worst of the global financial recession through the leadership efforts of Kevin Rudd and his team of ministers, his government simultaneously got on with the reform agenda that he had committed to in the 2007 election campaign. These were massive challenges, achieved under extraordinary circumstances.

Other members have talked about the apology, reforms in education and health, the River Murray agreement, tackling climate change, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the NBN rollout, pension increases and IR reforms, and the list goes on. None of these singly were small challenges, but they all were underway by 2010 when Kevin was replaced. They all originated under Kevin Rudd's leadership. They were all major social reforms that only a Labor government ever could or ever would deliver. And they were all well overdue.

Commentators will each have their own views about Kevin's achievements, what his best achievements were and perhaps what he did not do so well. My view is that his greatest achievement was that he changed both the direction and the nature of Australian politics and the direction of our nation in 2007. He took us from a government that was truly stuck in the past to a government that was focused on the future, the challenges that lay ahead and the importance of Australia's engagement with the rest of the world, bringing his own personal experience in international affairs to the prime ministership. In doing so he earned the respect and won the respect of international leaders across the world for his own leadership of this country and on global issues.

My view, however, is that his greatest achievement was, as Kevin put it himself in his speech last Wednesday night:

What I believe that statement also says is how extraordinary Kevin himself was. He did not come to the prime ministership or to the position he did in this parliament through the union movement. He was not a Labor Party official or staffer in the real sense but a highly motivated and determined intellect who became Australia's 26th Prime Minister. He did that through his own ability and he did it his way. It was that very ability that his adversaries feared the most.

Whilst he was a much different personality in many ways from two other great statesman that I speak of, Gough Whitlam and Don Dunstan, he also had a great deal in common with the two of them, Gough Whitlam being a former Prime Minister and Don Dunstan a former Premier of South Australia. They too were great intellectuals who became leaders through their own merits, who took over from long periods of conservative governments and who also embarked on major social reforms that last until today. In Gough's case he changed the direction of this country and in Don Dunstan's case he changed the direction of South Australia. They too were subjected to intense personal scrutiny and frequently cruel media commentary.

Some commentators have also said that Kevin was driven by his ego. I think I got to know Kevin fairly well having first met him in 2004. Kevin was as much driven by his sense of justice and his sense of getting things done as he was by his ego. I suspect his greatest regret was that his time as Prime Minister of this country was cut short in a similar way again to that of Gough Whitlam, where so much of what he wanted to do was still unfinished business at the time he had to step aside. That I suspect is partly what would have also caused his very emotional speech last Wednesday night. But though he did not achieve all he wanted, my view is that Kevin Rudd achieved so much. I spoke about some of those things earlier. Much of the work that he commenced was finished later on but it is still a credit to him that it was done in the first place.

In closing, I will say a couple things about Kevin on a very personal level. Kevin came out to my electorate in 2004 and 2007 on several occasions and later on in the last year or so. One of his real strengths was his ability to connect to the broader Australian people. It enabled him to communicate directly with them and people after many years once again reengaged in Australian politics. That in itself is an achievement, because our democracy in this country is only as good as the number of people who take an interest in democracy and the governance of this country. Kevin was able to engage with people. (Extension of time granted)

In closing, I wish Kevin all the best in his future. Of many MPs I have got to know in this place, I consider Kevin a friend. I consider that his time in this place is a time of great achievement. I have no doubt that he will go on to serve this country in one capacity or another. I also have no doubt that his family, Therese and his children, will welcome him back home.

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