Curtin - comfortable working class, work experience = writer for radical socialist and Marxist newspapers, unions.
Forde - comfortable working class, work experience = teacher
Chifley - comfortable working class, work experience train driver and union rep.
Whitlam - privileged upbringing, work experience = lawyer.
Hawke - privileged upbringing, work experience = Unions
Keating - comfortable working class, work experience = Unions
Rudd - working class but never having to endure going without. Rudd's upbringing has been heavily dramatized as difficult, some of which has been proven to be outright fabrication. After his father died he was a boarder at Marist Brothers Ashgrove. Rudd makes out the school was harsh and unforgiving. This is absolute rubbish. I suggest people read Hugh Lunn's "Over the Top with Jim" to get a balanced view of life at the school before Rudd's days. I had several friends at his school when he was there, and my school competed against it in sport regularly. Academically, the school was one of the top 3 Catholic Brisbane schools and graduates were highly regarded by large employers.
Work Experience = Public Servant, Dept of Foreign Affairs, Labor Party.
Gillard - comfortable working class, work experience = Aust Union of Students, Socialist Forum, lawyer, Labor Party
hmmmm....no poverty or near poverty, no extreme hardship, no orphans.
Suppose 'hardship' is subjective.