Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian politician who has been the 26th (List of Prime Ministers of Australia) Prime Minister of Australia since 2007; he has also been the federal leader of the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2006. Under Rudds leadership, the Labor Party won the November 2007 federal election (Australian federal election, 2007) against the incumbent centre-right Liberal (Liberal Party of Australia)/National (National Party of Australia) coalition (Coalition (Australia)) government led by John Howard (see Howard Government). The next Australian federal election is due to be held by April 2011 at the latest.

Rudd was born in Queensland and grew up on a dairy farm. He joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of 15 and was dux of Nambour State High School in 1974. He then studied an arts degree in Asian studies at the Australian National University, majoring in Chinese language and Chinese history (History of China). In 1981, He married Th�r�se Rein; they have three children. He worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia)) from 1981 to 1988. In 1988, he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Labor Opposition Leader in Queensland, Wayne Goss. He was then Chief of Staff to the Premier (Premiers of Queensland) making him arguably Queenslands most powerful bureaucrat. After the Goss government lost office in 1995 (Queensland state election, 1995), Rudd was hired as a Senior China Consultant by the accounting firm KPMG Australia (KPMG).

Rudd won the federal seat of Griffith (Division of Griffith) at the 1998 federal election (Australian federal election, 1998) during which his most publicised local cause was opposition to a suggested parallel runway at Brisbane Airport. He was promoted to the Opposition front bench following the 2001 election (Australian federal election, 2001) and appointed Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and, in 2005, both International Security and Trade were added to his portfolio. He was elected leader of the Labor Party in December 2006 and he and the ALP overtook the government in both party and leadership polling. As the new leader he made major announcements on climate change, an "education revolution", a National Broadband Network, health and the domestic car industry. The ALP enjoyed a 5.44 swing nationwide in the 2007 election. Following his December 2007 swearing-in, Rudds first official act was to sign the Kyoto Protocol and, in February 2008, he read an apology to Indigenous Australians for the "stolen generations".