The 51-year-old former diplomat Monday marks the first anniversary of his centre-left Labor Party’s landslide win with a personal approval rating of 70 percent, according to a Nielsen poll.

This is higher than any level the bespectacled father-of-three who speaks fluent Mandarin reached during his time as opposition leader, when he also developed a keen eye for policy detail.

Rudd has maintained a breathless pace since removing John Howard from office in the November 24 election which ended more than 11 years of conservative rule Down Under.

Rudd’s first official act was to ratify the Kyoto protocol on climate change and he swiftly followed this with a historic apology to Aborigines for past injustices — in both cases breaking long-standing positions held by Howard.

The fair-haired Queenslander, who has been likened to cartoon character Tintin, has also taken more overseas trips than any other Australian prime minister in their first 12 months.

He will spend Monday travelling home from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru, following the previous week’s dash to Washington for G20 talks hosted by US President George W. Bush.

But it is the global financial crisis which has allowed Australia’s 26th prime minister to redefine his leadership from the fiscal conservative of the 2007 campaign to the “big spender of 2008,” said political commentator Paul Kelly.

“The crisis was the turning point, it meant that Kevin Rudd had to recast his economic policy and to remake his political strategy,” Kelly, editor-at-large at The Australian newspaper, told ABC television.

“He seized the crisis. He presented himself as the man for the moment. He got his narrative and the narrative is — he will save Australia from the global recession or at least minimise the impact of the global downturn.”

Monash University academic Nick Economou said Rudd had enjoyed a solid, scandal-free first year and that the meltdown on world financial markets had given him an added platform to demonstrate his leadership.

“He’s clearly relishing what’s going on,” the senior lecturer in politics told AFP. “There’s no doubt that he’s appearing to be handling the crisis really well.”

The credit crunch prompted Rudd to guarantee bank deposits and spend almost half the forecast budget surplus of 21.7 billion dollars (13.6 billion US) on a stimulus package at the height of the panic mid-October.

Dr. Michael McKinley, senior lecturer in international relations at the Australian National University in Canberra, said Rudd had used the crisis to demonstrate his leadership credentials at home.

“The problem is that the global financial crisis is way beyond Australia’s ability to seriously influence,” he told AFP.

“Who is listening to Kevin Rudd? That is the question that needs to be asked.”

McKinley said while some of Rudd’s actions — such as signing the Kyoto Protocol so late — had been merely symbolic, the prime minister had made genuine gestures for which he will be remembered.

“I think the apology to the Aboriginal people has to count, I think the decision to sign Kyoto counts,” he told AFP.

But McKinley said Rudd, who withdrew Australia’s combat force from Iraq earlier this year, had not fundamentally changed the country’s position in the world.

“He is a sensible guy, and he’s intelligent. But has it made a difference to Australia’s standing in the world? No, it hasn’t.”

AFP:

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has told the APEC summit in Peru, Jakarta will boost growth with infrastructure projects like power plants, and fight poverty with greater spending on education and health care.

He says with global markets weakening and prices soft for Indonesia’s exported commodities “sources of growth will come more from our large domestic market,”.

The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, says his idea for an Asia Pacific Community would be an important move to ensure economic growth in the region.

“We need to think now about the next 20 years and beyond,” Mr Rudd said.

“The rapid changes taking place in our region are certain to throw up a myriad of economic, political and security and environmental challenges that require common action and we need to position the region to respond effectivey to all of these challenges through a single forum that brings together regional countries such as the Untied States, China, India, Indonesia and Japan and others.”

Mr Rudd wants the Community to be set up by 2020.

Indonesia looks inward for economic help

US President George W Bush used his final summit before leaving office to encourage continuity on the part of his successor Barack Obama on issues ranging from North Korean nuclear talks to free trade.

“We refuse to accept protectionism in the 21st century,” Bush said emphatically on Saturday.

His was one of a series of anti-protectionist statements made as the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum got under way in the Peruvian capital Lima on Saturday.

The 21-member grouping which accounts for half the world’s trade activity issued a statement that also urged reform of global financial institutions, echoing the Group of 20 summit held in Washington the previous weekend.

“We reiterate our firm belief that free market principles and open trade and investment regimes will continue to drive global growth, employment and poverty reduction,” said the one-page communique.

The statement was light on details, however, and there was no indication strong measures would be announced in a final statement on Sunday to address a financial crisis that has shown no sign of improving.

Attention was likely to turn somewhat on Sunday to the lighthearted annual photograph of regional leaders clad in attire unique to the host country, the signature feature of the gathering.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the 20 other APEC leaders are expected to don ponchos and, perhaps, the traditional Peruvian beanie, the chullo, when they gather for the traditional photograph at lunchtime (0400 AEDT Monday).

Rudd will join his counterparts at the Ministry of Defence to put the finishing touches to the final communique, known as the Lima Declaration, which will add impetus to efforts by the G20 nations – which met in Washington DC last weekend – to wrap up the long-running Doha round of global trade negotiations.

Before Sunday’s closing session gets under way, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese leader Hu Jintao were to meet, Russian officials said, for talks expected to further spotlight the two powers’ increasingly close relationship and its potential as a check on US power.

Russia and the United States have had a tense relationship recently due to disputes including US plans to erect a missile defence system in Eastern Europe.

The United States says the plan is aimed at a potential Iranian missile threat, but Russia has hotly opposed it as a provocation.

However, Bush and Medvedev made soothing noises during a Saturday bilateral meeting, calling for a “practical” approach to their relationship, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The leaders agreed “not to get hung up on such problems that always exist between big powers”, Lavrov told reporters.

In an another high-profile meeting on Saturday, Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak gathered to jointly press North Korea over a stalled six-nation pact on ending its nuclear program.

The three leaders called on North Korea to draft a document showing how it will carry out the landmark disarmament-for-aid deal.

Aso said afterward that Bush promised to impress upon Obama – who takes office in January facing a host of major problems – the importance of continuing the drive for a negotiated disarmament of North Korea.

Summit leaders were to issue the final declaration on Sunday amid broad consensus that change is needed in the global financial system but little clear indication yet of how to get there.

President Hu of China on Saturday repeated his country’s stance that efforts to address the current crisis should include giving developing countries such as China a greater voice in bodies like the International Monetary Fund.

Any world financial reforms “should seek a balance among the interests of all parties and reflect, in particular, the interests of emerging markets and developing countries”, Hu said.

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