In my opinion Kevin Rudd is Australia's greatest Prime Minister over the past thirty years because of:
-strong economic management- kept Australia out of a Great Depression/ Great Recession during the time period concept of the Global Financial Crisis. Australia was facing the most challenging economic circumstances since the Great Depression. We got through the GFC with the lowest unemployment, strong public finances, strong economic growth and high workforce participation when compared to the rest of the Western World.
-pension reform- gave the biggest increase to the pension over the past thirty years after 11 years of neglect by the Howard government. Rudd reformed the pension system and increased the qualifying age of the age pension from 55 years to 67 years to ensure the sustainability of the pension system. We are living longer that means we should be working for a longer period of time.
- improved Health and Education services in Australia- working in partnership with the state governments reformed the education and health system; making it more productive, efficient and catered to circumstance contingent demands of the clients (needs based system). The Better Schools reform was a great success so much so Tony Abbott did a 'me too' on such policies.
- border protection reform- aimed to stop the boats by introducing tough border protection policies such as the Papua New Guinea Resettlement Solution for asylum seekers.
-strong national security- stepped up the fight against international terrorism and won the un winable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by standing shoulder to shoulder with America and strengthening the US-Australia Alliance.
