Kuwait Times

Published Date: November 25, 2007

SYDNEY: Australians elected a Chinese-speaking former diplomat as their first new prime minister in more than a decade yesterday, embracing left-leaning Kevin Rudd as a next-generation leader who rates tackling global warming his top priority. The emphatic victory brought a sharp and mortifying end to the conservative era of John Howard, who dominated Australia's political scene for more than a decade but failed to read the signs that voters had grown tired of his rule. Howard, who reshaped Australia's im
age abroad with his unwavering support for US President George W Bush's war on terrorism and in Iraq, faced further humiliation. Official results showed him likely to he kicked out of Parliament altogether, though final results on that were not expected until Sunday at the earliest. Rudd's pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of Bush's staunchest allies.

Rudd has promised to pull Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq in a phased withdrawal, and to quickly sign the Kyoto Protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Howard had rejected withdrawal plans for Australia's troops in Iraq, and said no to ratifying Kyoto. But the bulk of Australia's foreign, trade and economic policies were not expected to change much. Rudd skirted over policy targets on education and health in a nationally televised victory speech before hundreds of cheering supporters in hi
s home state of Queensland late yesterday night, but made clear he wanted his rule to be a break from the past. "Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward," Rudd said. "To plan for the future, to prepare for the future, to embrace the future and together as Australians to unite and write a new page in our nation's history.

Howard, 68, had stayed on to fight for a fifth term in office despite parlous opinion poll numbers and the urging of some colleagues to quit while he was ahead. He took the blame for the drubbing handed to his government. "I accept full responsibility for the Liberal Party campaign, and I therefore accept full responsibility for the coalition's defeat in this election campaign," Howard said in his concession speech in Sydney. He said it appeared "very likely" he would lose his seat in Parliament to forme
r television journalist Maxine McKew, and had hinted that even if he was re-elected he would quit soon. Only one other sitting prime minister has lost his district in the 106-year history of Australia's federal government- the unpopular Stanley Bruce, in 1929. Official figures late yesterday from the Australian Electoral Commission showed Rudd's Labor Party had more than 53 percent of the vote with over 75 percent of ballots counted, compared to 46.8 percent for Howard's coalition.

Using those figures, an Australian Broadcasting Corp analysis showed that Labor would get at least 81 places in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament -a clear majority. Rudd, 50, had urged voters to support him because Howard was out of touch with modern Australia and ill-equipped to deal with new-age issues such as climate change and high-speed Internet. Howard campaigned on his economic management, arguing that his government was mostly responsible for 17 years of unbroken economic growth, fueled by Ch
ina's and India's hunger for Australian coal and other minerals. He also contended that Rudd could not be trusted to maintain prosperous times. Rudd has more experience in foreign policy than any other area of government, and can be expected to adopt a nuanced, non-confrontational approach, experts said. In his victory speech, Rudd sent "greetings ... to our great friend and ally the United States," as well as Asian and other nations.

Bush congratulated Rudd and Labor on the victory. "The United States and Australia have long been strong partners and allies and the president looks forward to working with this new government to continue our historic relationship," said Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman. Bush also sent best wishes to his friend and ally Howard -but did not specifically comment on Rudd's stated intent to withdraw combat troops from Iraq: "During his time as prime minister, Mr Howard served the people of Australia
well by pursuing policies that led to strong economic growth and a commitment to keeping Australians safe by fighting extremists and their ideology around the world" At home, Rudd has pledged to govern as an "economic conservative," while pouring money into schools and universities. He will curtail sweeping industrial reforms laws that were perceived to hand bosses too much power, turning many working voters against Howard.

Few in Rudd's team have any federal government experience. It includes a former rock star -one-time Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett and a number of former union officials. But analysts say that Rudd's foreign policy credentials are impeccable, and that he has shown discipline and political skill since his election as Labor leader 11 months ago. Rudd's election as Labor leader marked the start of Howard's decline in opinion polls, from which he never recovered. Howard has held his district for 33 years,
and his four straight election victories since 1996 made him one of Australia's most successful politicians. Now, his legacy will be tarnished by the hubris of staying too long. Final results -including in Howard's district- would not be known yesterday, with postal and other votes still to be counted. Rudd, with reputation as a workaholic and hard taskmaster, advised his staff to enjoy "a strong cup of tea" on yesterday night to celebrate the victory. "Friends, tomorrow the work begins," he said.

Australia's incoming prime minister Kevin Rudd could scarcely have imagined as his penniless family slept in a car during his childhood that one day he would lead the nation. Rudd galvanized his supporters with the belief they could finally oust Prime Minister John Howard after four election defeats and 11 years in the political wilderness, and he was proved right in yesterday's elections. The youthful-looking Rudd took over as Australian Labor Party leader last December, inheriting a demoralized party spl
it by bitter factional divisions and seemingly incapable of denting Howard's popularity. Rudd appeared an unlikely savior for the centre-left party-a former diplomat and fluent Mandarin speaker seen in Canberra as a foreign policy wonk. While the 50-year-old likes to describe himself as a "farm boy from Queensland", he was also seen as too intellectual and lacking the common touch Australians prefer in their political leaders. Rudd's fresh-faced appearance meant he was disparagingly referred to as "Harry
Potter" by some within his own party. But he rated himself "a very determined bastard" ready to take on Australia's second-longest serving prime minister. Rudd endured a tough childhood, forced to temporarily sleep in a car aged 11 when his family was evicted from their Queensland farm following his father's death in a road accident. He said that experience shaped the views on social justice that led him to run for federal parliament, where he was elected in 1998 on his second attempt.

Before arriving in Canberra, he was a senior bureaucrat for the state Labor government in Queensland and had a lengthy career as a diplomat, including postings to Stockholm and Beijing, where he became an ardent Sinofile. Married with three children, his wife Therese is a millionaire businesswoman in her own right-a fact that plays well with female voters, Australian National University political science professor John Warhurst told AFP. Analysts said that Rudd had achieved a realistic chance of toppling H
oward by portraying himself as a younger, more up-to-date version of his rival to the swing voters who would decide the election. He describes himself as a "fiscal conservative" and speaks openly about his Christian faith. "He doesn't spook the horses and he's seen as a pretty safe pair of hands on the economy," Warhurst said.

Rudd frustrated the government by adopting many of its policies and refusing to be distracted on issues such as race relations and civil liberties. Instead, he differed from Howard's platform on only a few key issues seen as vote winners, including withdrawing Australian combat troops from Iraq by mid-2008 and ditching controversial government workplace reforms. He also emphasized his potential for generational change, campaigning on issues such as global warming and broadband Internet access, where the 68
-year-old Howard often appeared uncomfortable. Rudd remained unflustered in the face of a series of attacks on his credibility, including questions about his wife's business and his handling of sex abuse claims at a juvenile prison when he was a Queensland bureaucrat. Details of a drunken trip Rudd made to a New York strip club in 2003 were also leaked to the media during the campaign, but that backfired when the bookish leader's opinion polls ratings went up in a country that puts pride in "blokish" antic
s. - Agencies