21st century

Into the 21st centuryThe Labor Party's Kevin Rudd defeated Howard at the 2007 election, and Rudd held the office until June 2010, when he was replaced as the leader of the party. Rudd used his term in office to symbolically ratify the Kyoto Protocol and led an historic parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generation (those Indigenous Australians who had been removed from their parents by the state during the early 20th century to the 1960s). The mandarin Chinese speaking former diplomat also pursued energetic foreign policy and initially sought to instigate a price on carbon in the Australian economy to combat global warming. His prime ministership coincided with the initial phases of the Financial crisis of 2007–2010, to which his government responded through a large package of economic stimulus—the management of which later proved to be controversial.[411]

Following two and half decades of economic reform and amidst booming trade with Asia, Australia avoided recession following the collapse of financial markets, in stark contrast to most other Western economies.[412]

The Labor Party replaced Rudd with Julia Gillard in 2010, and Gillard became the first woman prime minister in Australian history. Following the 2010 Election, Labor secured office in the first hung parliament since the 1940 election.[413] Kevin Rudd was reinstated as prime minister in a Labor leadership spill on 27 June 2013.[414] After the 2013 Australian General Election, Rudd lost the role of Prime Minister to Tony Abbott, the Liberal Leader