The sudden resignation last week by Kevin Rudd, following a revolt within his own party, capped a stunning fall from grace for a politician who until recently had been one of Australia's most popular prime ministers ever. His success in navigating Australia through an economic crisis was not enough for voters angered over his policy reversals on issues such as taxes and climate change. The Labour party dumped Mr. Rudd, naming Ms. Julia Gillard to pick up the pieces and deliver election success.
After taking command of the party in 2006, Mr. Rudd led Labour to election victory in November 2007, ending the party's 11 years in the political wilderness. A former diplomat and fluent Mandarin speaker, Mr. Rudd promised to reinvigorate a nation fatigued by more than a decade of conservative rule. After taking office, he pledged to pull all Australian troops from Iraq (a move that was completed in July 2009), offered a historic apology to indigenous Australians for past injustices, and then reversed his predecessor's policy on climate change, promising to put that issue at the center of his legislative agenda. He honored that vow by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and by helping to broker the final compromise at the Copenhagen climate conference.
Finally, Mr. Rudd helped steer the economy through the worst of the recession: A stimulus program with aid to banks kept the Australian economy growing in every quarter except one during his term in office. Unemployment remained at half that in other Western economies. No wonder that at the beginning of 2010, Mr. Rudd was polling as high as any Australian prime minister.