JUST weeks after Kevin Rudd finished basking in the glow of his 1000 best and brightest Australians at last autumn's 2020 Summit, the Prime Minister unveiled Craig Midgley as his Everyman. Midgley caught Rudd's attention at the community cabinet meeting in Penrith in April when he got to his feet to complain about rising interest rates and how he could not afford organised sports for his sons or nappies for his youngest.

Midgley, 39, a shelf stacker for Woolworths in the western Sydney marginal seat of Lindsay, and whose wife is a primary school teacher, came to personify Rudd's working families in need of the budget's $55 billion in tax cuts and other handouts.

Rudd and the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, phoned Midgley, a father of four, several times in the weeks before the budget and, when the media descended, his friends took one look at his newfound national fame and dubbed him the John Kenneth Galbraith of Cambridge Park. In short, Midgley embodies the "aspirational" voter who shifted to Rudd 12 months ago.

Raised in a Labor-leaning household, Midgley voted for the Liberal Jackie Kelly in the election that swept John Howard to power in 1996. He stuck loyal for 12 years, and has not regretted voting for Rudd.

In May Midgley was staying home with his daughters Caitlin, 4, and Lauren, 3 and working part-time doing "night fill at Woolies". The family was "just getting by" on about $90,000 a year. He returned to full-time work after his youngest was diagnosed as mildly autistic and the family needed extra money to send her to pre-school.

"Still, I'd have to say we're better off," Midgley says. "We got $1000 back on our tax returns. That enabled us to drive to Queensland so our youngest could meet her grandfather for the first time. He died two weeks later so we really know what the money meant. On top of that our mortgage has dropped considerably; we're unaffected by the economic meltdown because our work is insulated, people always need to be taught and to eat."