Philip Ruddock

Philip Maxwell Ruddock AO (born 12 March 1943) is an Australian politician who served as the 32nd Attorney-General of Australia from 2003 to 2007 under Prime Minister John Howard. A member of the Liberal Party, he was elected to the House of Representatives from 1973 to 2016; by the time of his retirement Ruddock was the last Member of Parliament (MP) to have sat under the Whitlam and Fraser governments. He was both the Father of the House and the Father of the Parliament from 1998 to retirement. He is the second longest-serving parliamentarian in the history of the Australian Parliament; only Billy Hughes has served longer.

First elected in a by-election in Parramatta, Ruddock held the seat of Dundas from 1977 to 1993, then that of Berowra. He served continuously in the ministry during the Howard government, as Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs from 1996 to 2001 (promoted to the federal Cabinet in 2003), Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs from 2001 to 2003, and Attorney-General from 2003 to 2007. As Immigration Minister, Ruddock played a central role in implementing the Pacific Solution in 2001.

In 2016 Ruddock was appointed the Australian Special Envoy for Human Rights. He later served as Mayor of Hornsby Shire Council from 2017 to 2024. He is a Vice Chair of the Global Panel Foundation Australasia.

Philip Ruddock was born in Canberra, the son of Emmie (née Chappell) and Max Ruddock. His father was the Deputy Prices Commissioner working for the Commonwealth Government. The senior Ruddock was later a Liberal member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1962 to 1976 and a state minister in the Lewis and Willis governments.

Ruddock was educated at Barker College in the suburb of Hornsby before attending the University of Sydney, after which he practised as a solicitor. He was articled to the firm Berne, Murray and Tout and was promoted to partner.

From 1973 to 1974, Ruddock was the federal president of the Young Liberals.

On 22 September 1973, Ruddock was elected to the House of Representatives at a by-election for the seat of Parramatta. He narrowly held it at the 1974 general election, but was returned with a large swing in 1975. A redistribution ahead of the 1977 election, however, split Parramatta almost in half. The western half retained the Parramatta name and became a marginal Labor seat anchored in heavily pro-Labor west Sydney. The eastern half, including most of the old Parramatta's Liberal-friendly areas, became the comfortably safe Liberal seat of Dundas. Ruddock transferred to Dundas, a move that proved prescient. While his Labor opponent from 1975, John Brown, won Parramatta with a small swing, Ruddock won Dundas resoundingly. He held it without serious difficulty until its abolition in 1993. Ruddock then transferred to the equally safe seat of Berowra, a seat he held for the remainder of his federal political career.

Ruddock was a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry from 1983 to 1985 and from 1989 to 1996. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was an active member of the parliamentary group of Amnesty International. In 2000, Ruddock was disavowed by Amnesty International due to the treatment of refugees by the Howard government and asked not to wear his Amnesty International badge while performing ministerial duties.