Simon Findlay Crean is an Australian politician and trade unionist. He was the Member of Parliament for Hotham from 1990 to 2013, representing the Labor Party, and served as a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard Governments. He was the Leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2001 to December 2003.
Kim Christian Beazley is an Australian politician and diplomat who is currently serving as the 33rd governor of Western Australia. He previously served as deputy prime minister of Australia from 1995 to 1996, leader of the Labor Party and leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 2001 and 2005 to 2006, and Ambassador to the United States from 2010 to 2016. He served in multiple roles in the Hawke and Keating Governments from 1983 to 1996.
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia, from December 2007 to June 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party.
Julia Eileen Gillard is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only female prime minister in Australian history.
Anthony John Abbott is a former Australian politician. He served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party.
Anthony Norman Albanese is an Australian politician who is the 31st and current prime minister of Australia. He has been the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019, and member of parliament (MP) for Grayndler since 1996. Albanese was the 15th deputy prime minister of Australia under the second Rudd government in 2013 and a cabinet minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments from 2007 to 2013.
Lindsay James Tanner is a former Australian politician. A member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he represented the seat of Melbourne in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2010 and served as Minister for Finance in the Rudd and Gillard Governments from 2007 to 2010.
Stephen Francis Smith is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2013. He served as a minister in the Rudd and Gillard Governments, including as Minister for Foreign Affairs (2007–2010), Minister for Trade (2010), and Minister for Defence (2010–2013).
Penelope Ying-Yen Wong is an Australian politician who has been the Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2022. A Senator for South Australia since 2002, she has been the Senate Leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2013, and the Leader of the Government in the Senate since 2022. She was previously Australia's first Minister for Climate Change from 2007 to 2010 in the first Rudd government and Minister for Finance from 2010 to 2013 in the Gillard and second Rudd governments.
Faceless men is a term from Australian politics. The term is generally used to refer to men and women who exert political influence and are not elected representatives to state, territory or federal legislative bodies, yet are elected representatives to bodies that determine political party policies. However, the political tactic of elected representatives canvassing party members for support on policies varies widely amongst Australian political parties.
The Monthly is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer Morry Schwartz.
The first Rudd ministry (Labor) was the 64th ministry of the Government of Australia. It was led by the country's 26th Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. The first Rudd ministry succeeded the Fourth Howard Ministry, which dissolved on 3 December 2007 following the federal election that took place on 24 November which saw Labor defeat John Howard's Liberal–National Coalition. The ministry was replaced by the First Gillard Ministry on 24 June 2010 following the resignation of Rudd as Prime Minister after a successful leadership challenge by Julia Gillard.
In Australian politics, a leadership spill is a colloquialism referring to a declaration that the leadership of a parliamentary party is vacant and open for contest. A spill may involve all or some of the leadership positions. Where a rival to the existing leader calls for a spill it may also be called a leadership challenge. In Australian English the colloquial use of the word "spill" seems to have begun in the mid-1940s with the contest to replace Prime Minister John Curtin after his death on 5 July 1945.
Several surveys of academics and the general public have been conducted to evaluate and rank the performance of the prime ministers of Australia.
The Rudd government (2007–2010) was the executive Government of Australia formed by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The Rudd government commenced on 3 December 2007, when Rudd was sworn in along with his ministry. This took place just nine days after the defeat of the Howard government, which was a Coalition of members of the Liberal and National parties, at the 2007 federal election. The Rudd government concluded on 24 June 2010 when Rudd, under pressure from an impending leadership caucus ballot, stepped down from the leadership of the ALP and was succeeded by his deputy, Julia Gillard. Rudd was re-elected leader of the Labor Party in 2013 and served a second term as prime minister.
The Gillard government was the Government of Australia led by the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, of the Australian Labor Party. The Gillard government succeeded the first Rudd government by way of the Labor Party leadership spill, and began on 24 June 2010, with Gillard sworn in as Prime Minister by the Governor-General of Australia, Quentin Bryce. The Gillard government ended when Kevin Rudd won back the leadership of the Australian Labor Party on 26 June 2013 and commenced the second Rudd government.
The 2013 Australian federal election to elect the members of the 44th Parliament of Australia took place on 7 September 2013. The centre-right Liberal/National Coalition opposition led by Opposition leader Tony Abbott of the Liberal Party of Australia and Coalition partner the National Party of Australia, led by Warren Truss, defeated the incumbent centre-left Labor Party government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by an 18-seat 3.6 percentage point two-party swing resulting in a landslide win for the Coalition. Labor had been in government for six years since first being elected in the 2007 election. This election marked the end of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government and the start of the 9 year long Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Liberal-National Coalition government. Abbott was sworn in by the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, as Australia's new Prime Minister on 18 September 2013, along with the Abbott Ministry. The 44th Parliament of Australia opened on 12 November 2013, with the members of the House of Representatives and territory senators sworn in. The state senators were sworn in by the next Governor-General Peter Cosgrove on 7 July 2014, with their six-year terms commencing on 1 July.
A leadership spill in the Australian Labor Party, the party then forming the Government of Australia, took place on 26 June 2013 at 7:00pm AEST. Prime Minister Julia Gillard called a ballot for Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labor Party live on Sky News Australia at 4:00pm, following persistent leadership tensions. She stated that she would retire from politics if she lost the vote, while calling on any would-be challengers to pledge to do the same if they lost. In a press conference held shortly after Gillard's announcement, backbencher and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that he would challenge Gillard, whilst also pledging to step down if he did not win the vote. At the ALP caucus meeting, Rudd was elected Leader of the Labor Party, with the caucus voting 57–45 in his favour.
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.
Cabinet Secretary was a ministerial portfolio within the Australian federal government from 2007 to 2013, from 2015 to 2017, and was reinstated by the Albanese Government. The minister is responsible for assisting the Prime Minister of Australia in managing the day-to-day procedural and operational matters of the Cabinet and any Cabinet committees. The Cabinet Secretary's portfolio falls within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
