Kevin Rudd was on Thursday sworn in as Australian Prime Minister for the second time, a day after toppling bitter party rival Julia Gillard, as he appealed for unity with the ruling labor staring at a likely drubbing in the general election in September.
55-year-old Rudd was sworn in as the country’s 28th Prime Minister by Governor-General Quentin Bryce at a short official ceremony at Government House in Canberra, returning back to his role that was taken away from him by Gillard in 2010.
In his first address on Thursday in Parliament, he called on MPs to be a “little kinder and gentler” with each other. “Political life is a very hard life, a very hard life indeed,” he told Parliament. “let us all remember particularly on days like this that in this Parliament, and in this place, we are all human beings, we all have emotions, so let us try — just try — to be a little kinder and gentler with each other in the further deliberations of this Parliament,” he said apparently referring to bickering within his party that led to his showdown with Gillard.