KEVIN RUDD has been welcomed as a saviour by many in the Labor Party and the union movement. This is understandable given his huge lead over Howard in the polls. But what does he really stand for?There is nothing in Rudd's life or career to indicate any significant progressive streak. He is a free market enthusiast with no sympathy for unions.

Rudd makes much of his poor, rural origins. His family was evicted from their Queensland farm after his father died when Rudd was 11 years old.

He managed to get himself through university, excelling in Asian Studies and winning a job in the diplomatic corps, serving in Scandinavian countries and later in China.

In 1988 Rudd was made chief of staff to the Queensland Labor opposition leader, Wayne Goss. Rudd continued as chief of staff when Goss won the 1989 election.

In 1992 he was appointed as director-general of the office of cabinet, a role that earned Rudd the nickname Dr Death for his restructure of the public service and the resulting loss of thousands of jobs.

In 1996 Rudd ran unsuccessfully for parliament, before being elected in 1998. In 2001 he was promoted to the front bench as Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, the job he held until becoming party leader.

Despite his poor upbringing, Rudd has no connection to the working class movement, and no great affinity for unions.

"Trade unions will survive or die based on their ability to compete-that means being able to offer working Australians services to represent them which they can't obtain elsewhere," he told The Australian recently.

Blair Mark II?

Rudd has positioned himself as a Third Way leader in the mould of Tony Blair. He describes himself as "basically a conservative when it comes to questions of public financial management", but cautions about the evils of unfettered capitalism.

Last year Rudd couched this approach in the language of Christian social justice.

He argued that the free market was eroding the traditional importance of the family, and that Labor should position itself as a party of the "centre" and the protector of traditional family values.

But more recently, his ideas about social justice have faded into the background. He now uses the much more ambiguous notion of "fairness", which crops up repeatedly in nearly every Rudd speech.

Some of Rudd's recent backflips on IR policy can be explained by his direct interest in pleasing big business and the stockmarkets. Through his investments and his wife's business interests, he is one of Australia's wealthiest politicians.

His wife Therese Rein started a recruitment firm while Rudd was working for the Queensland government. It employs hundreds of staff and has an annual turnover of $165 million.

Rein's company benefited from the Howard government's privatisation of employment services.

It currently has contracts with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations worth $58 million a year.

Rein's stake in the company is worth as much as $20 million. The Rudd family also has millions of dollars in shares.

Because Labor is committed to running capitalism, all Labor leaders come under the competing pressure from the party's working class base and big business.

Too often Labor has acquiesced to business demands.

It shouldn't surprise us that Rudd is doing this now. After all, his class position is far closer to a captain of industry than to an average worker or even a union official.

By Jarvis Ryan