Simon Crean

Simon Findlay Crean (born 26 February 1949) is an Australian politician and trade unionist. He was leader of the Australian Labor Party and Federal Leader of the Opposition from November 2001 to December 2003. He was President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1985 to 1990. He served as the Member for Hotham in the Australian Parliament from 1990 to 2013, and held numerous cabinet portfolios, most recently as Minister for the Arts and Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government in 2013. Crean retired from politics at the 2013 election.

Early life and education

Crean was born in Melbourne. He is the son of Frank Crean, a federal Labor MP 1951–77, who was at separate times Treasurer, Minister for Overseas Trade, and Deputy Prime Minister in the Gough Whitlam government.Dr David Crean, a former Labor member of the Parliament of Tasmania, is his brother. Another brother, Stephen Crean, died while skiing alone at Charlotte Pass, New South Wales in 1985, aged 38, and his body was not found for two years.

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Kevin Rudd

Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is a former Australian politician who was twice Prime Minister of Australia, from 2007 to 2010, and again in 2013. He was the first former prime minister to return to the office since Robert Menzies in 1949.

Having previously served as a diplomat, and then as an official for the Queensland Government, Rudd was initially elected to the House of Representatives for Griffith in 1998. He was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001 as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. In December 2006, he successfully challenged Kim Beazley to become the Leader of the Labor Party, subsequently becoming the Leader of the Opposition. Under Rudd, Labor overtook the incumbent Liberal/National Coalition led by John Howard in the polls, making a number of policy announcements on areas such as industrial relations, health, climate change, education ("Building the Education Revolution", "Digital Education Revolution"), and the National Broadband Network.

Labor won the 2007 election by a landslide, with a 23-seat swing in its favour, and Rudd was sworn in as the 26th Prime Minister of Australia on 3 December. The Rudd Government's first acts included signing the Kyoto Protocol and delivering an apology to Indigenous Australians for the Stolen Generations. The previous government's industrial relations legislation, WorkChoices, was largely dismantled, Australia's remaining Iraq War combat personnel were withdrawn, and the "Australia 2020 Summit" was held. In response to the global financial crisis, the government provided economic stimulus packages, and Australia was one of the few developed countries to avoid the late-2000s recession.