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Philip Maxwell Ruddock (born 12 March 1943 in Canberra) is an Australian politician and former Mayor of Hornsby Shire. He is a Vice Chair of the Global Panel Foundation Australasia.
Ruddock was previously a Liberal member of the House of Representatives from 1973 to 2016. First elected in a 1973 by-election, by the time of his retirement he was the last parliamentary survivor of 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. Ruddock 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.
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.
While Ruddock was still a backbencher, the Leader of the Opposition, John Howard, commented that he believed the rate of Asian people immigration was too high. The Hawke government sought to introduced a motion to Parliament to ensure that immigration did not discriminate on the basis of race. Ruddock along with fellow Liberals Steele Hall and Ian Macphee crossed the floor to support the Labor motion. In 1989, following Andrew Peacock's ascension to the leadership, Ruddock became Shadow Minister for Immigration and proposed a settlement scheme for Australia's far north.
Ruddock's "Pacific Solution" – which prevented asylum seekers receiving legal access – was condemned by Human Rights Watch as contravening international law, as being a human rights violation: Oxfam and the UNHCR (United Nations refugee agency) agreed with this viewpoint.Streatfield, D. (2011) A History of the World Since 9/11, Chapter 2., pp.70–73
Ruddock's decisions were highly controversial and led to Amnesty International's public attempt to distance the organisation from him by asking him to remove his lapel badge.
In 2003, Ruddock was accused by the Labor immigration spokesperson, Julia Gillard, of personally intervening to give a Filipino with a criminal record, Dante Tan, favourable treatment in exchange for donations to the Liberal Party. Ruddock denied that there was a connection between the donations and his actions, and noted that the donation had been properly declared. In 2004, an Australian Federal Police investigation cleared Ruddock of any wrongdoing, and a Senate inquiry, composed of a majority of Labor members, found that "there was no way to determine whether Mr Ruddock was influenced by money to grant visas."
Ruddock defended a decision to deny a gay veteran's partner a spousal pension, despite their 38-year same-sex relationship.
The UN Human Rights Commission found the Australian government in violation of equality and privacy rights under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, but Ruddock insisted the government was not bound by the ruling.
In May 2006, Ruddock blocked a gay Australian man from marrying in Europe.
Ruddock refused to grant a gay man living in the Netherlands a 'Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage' document required by some European countries before marriage, to prove foreigners are in fact single. Under Ruddock's instructions, no such documents were to be released to gay and lesbians individuals intending to marry overseas.
In July 2007, he remarked that Australia needs to improve its legislation to deal with pro-terrorist literature and media. "People who may be susceptible to carrying out a terrorist act ought not to be instructed in how to do it, how to use household products to produce a bomb, or be encouraged to think about violent jihad and taking their own life", he said.
In 2007 Ruddock and the New South Wales Right to Life Association complained to the Australian Classification Board about the sale in Australia of The Peaceful Pill Handbook by Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart. The book provides information on assisted death and voluntary euthanasia. The complaint resulted in the book's banning from sale in Australia. Nitschke commented that "No other country in the world ... has gone down this path – Australia stands alone" and that the Ruddock's action represented a "significant erosion to the free speech principle and it's extremely disappointing".
He returned to the frontbench as Shadow Cabinet Secretary after Tony Abbott captured the Opposition leadership in December 2009. The Coalition was returned to government in 2013.
Ruddock was replaced as Chief Government Whip by Queensland MP Scott Buchholz on 13 February 2015.
On 27 May 2015, Ruddock was appointed to the new office of Special Envoy for Citizenship and Community Engagement. The office was created in the wake of controversial proposals by the government to strip sole Australians of their citizenship.
On 8 February 2016, Ruddock announced that he would not contest the next federal election and would be retiring from politics.
On 8 February 2016, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that Ruddock would be appointed Australia's first special envoy for human rights.
In August 2017, Ruddock announced his candidacy for Mayor of Hornsby Shire and was declared elected on 16 September 2017.
In November 2017, Ruddock accepted an invitation from the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to chair a review of religious freedoms in Australia in light of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey and the introduction into federal parliament a private member's bill to enact the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017.
In February 2018, Ruddock was elected as the state president of the Liberal Party NSW Division.
In August 2024 Ruddock lost Liberal Party Preselection for the position of Mayor for the 2024 Local Government election and retired at the same election.
Ruddock's daughters found it difficult to reconcile their father's hard line on immigration with the values of compassion they were raised with.
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