The Greens were pivotal
votes of up to 20 per cent in many electorates
Greens would hold the balance of power in the senate.
Government's industrial relations laws as a reason for the savage voter backlash.
humiliating defeat
the revenge of Rudd's "working families"
"To start building a world-class education system. To embrace the long-term funding needs of our public hospital system.
"To act and act with urgency on the great challenges of climate change and water.
"To build a 21st century infrastructure for a 21st century economy and to get the balance right between fairness and flexibility in the workplaces of the nation."
Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat
generational change and to bury past battles between unions and business and economic growth and the environment.
will immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change
withdraw combat troops from the Iraq war
heartland family promises to improve hospitals and education, turning schools into "digital" classrooms with computers for every student and to scrap controversial labor laws.
a more independent foreign policy. He is expected to forge closer links with China.
gaining media attention, regularly ringing reporters after work hours and on weekends to promote his views on the issue of the day.
+++
Rudd triumphs as Howard cast aside
Sydney Morning Herald
Kerry-Anne Walsh Political Correspondent
November 25, 2007
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/24/1195753380642.html
JOHN HOWARD led his Government to a humiliating defeat last night and was poised to lose his own seat as Kevin Rudd became Australia's 26th Prime Minister.
Families and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough was another high-profile scalp on a night in which Australia called a definitive end to Mr Howard's 11-year reign.
The national two-party preferred swing to Labor of 6.3per cent was the second-largest since World War II, bettered only by Gough Whitlam in 1975. Labor looked certain to secure 86 of the 150 House of Representative seats and hoped for 90 - a gain of at least 30 seats.
At 10.35 pm Mr Howard conceded defeat and acknowledged it was very likely he would lose the seat he had held for 33 years to celebrity Labor recruit Maxine McKew.
Flanked by his teary-eyed wife, Janette, and two sons, Richard and Tim - his daughter Melanie was absent on bridesmaid duties - Mr Howard accepted blame for the defeat and anointed Peter Costello as his successor.
"It has been an enormous pleasure every day of my life, over the last 11½ years, to be Prime Minister of this beautiful country," he said in a strong, dry-eyed concession speech.
Accepting victory just after 11pm, Mr Rudd told a cheering crowd of Labor faithful in Brisbane he would be Prime Minister "for all Australia".
"Today Australia has looked to the future. Today the people of Australia have decided that we move forward," the Labor Prime Minister-elect proclaimed.
Ms McKew described the Rudd landslide as a "fabulous, transforming day for the country".
With her partner Bob Hogg and mother Mary close by, Ms McKew told a huge cheering crowd in North Ryde that Bennelong "will never, ever be taken for granted again".
The star candidate forced Mr Howard to campaign every weekend in Bennelong, destabilising his national campaign and diverting his attention from a string of marginal seats.
The Greens were pivotal in the Labor win, recording primary votes of up to 20 per cent in many electorates, which went to Labor candidates.
Greens leader Bob Brown said Greens voters had played an "enormous part" in the Labor win, and predicted the Greens would hold the balance of power in the senate.
Australia's first female Deputy Prime Minister-elect, Julia Gillard, cited the Government's industrial relations laws as a reason for the savage voter backlash. "WorkChoices really did crack a substantial proportion of the so-called Howard battlers," she said.
NSW was central to the Labor assault, turning the once-loyal territory of "Howard battlers" into the revenge of Rudd's "working families" with a swing across the state of 7.4 per cent.
Mr Rudd's home state of Queensland swung strongly behind Labor, recording an 8per cent swing to lift the party's representation from six to at least 16 of the state's 29 seats.
Eden-Monaro, which has reflected the national result for 32 years, was ceded to Labor's Mike Kelly less than an hour after polling booths closed.
Edited version of John Howard's concession speech:
...Kevin Rudd's victory speech
November 24, 2007 10:29am
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22817022-5006301,00.html?from=mostpop
A JUBILANT Kevin Rudd has claimed victory for Labor in the federal election after voters turfed out the 11-year-old Coalition government.
Mr Rudd paid tribute to outgoing prime minister John Howard for his service to public life.
"A short time ago Mr Howard called me to offer his congratulations," Mr Rudd told his supporters at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.
"I thanked him for that and the dignity with which he offered those congratulations."
Mr Rudd called for the crowd to acknowledge Mr Howard's 33 years in public life.
"I want to wish Mr and Mrs Howard and their family all the very best for the future," Mr Rudd said.
He said both men had many differences but also had something in common.
"There are big differences between us but we share a common pride in this great nation of ours," Mr Rudd said.
"Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward," he 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."
Mr Rudd said many people had voted for Labor for the first time, or the first time in a long time.
"I want to thank all those people in Australia who have placed their trust in me and my team."
Mr Rudd promised to keep true to all Australians.
"I say tonight to the nation, I will never take their sacred trust for granted," the new prime minister said.
"I understand that this is a great privilege and I will do everything to honour the trust that has been extended to me."
He said he was ready to take on the responsibility of leading the country.
"I also understand there is a great responsibility involved in national leadership and I stand ready to accept that responsibility."
He thanked all the people who voted Labor today.
"I am determined to honour the confidence which has been extended to us by the people of our great land.
"And I say to all of those who have voted for us today, I say to each and every one of them that I will be a prime minister for all Australians."
Mr Rudd pledged to begin work immediately to implement Labor's election promises, vowing to "work together ... to carve out our nation's destiny".
"We have put before the Australian people a plan, it's our agenda for work. And you know something - everything I have said through this election campaign and in the year leading up to it is our agenda for work," he said.
"To start building a world-class education system. To embrace the long-term funding needs of our public hospital system.
"To act and act with urgency on the great challenges of climate change and water.
"To build a 21st century infrastructure for a 21st century economy and to get the balance right between fairness and flexibility in the workplaces of the nation."
Mr Rudd said he would be a prime minister for all Australians - for indigenous Australians, Australians born here and those who came from overseas, for cities and towns and rural Australia "which is right now experiencing the worst drought our country has known".
"I will be prime minister for all Australians," he said.
"And I make this solemn pledge to the nation: I will always govern in the national interest.
He promised the protection of Australian borders would remain a top priority for the Labor government, as it has been under Mr Howard.
"This task as well, to remain ever vigilant in defence of our nation's national security."
Mr Rudd admitted he had a tough job ahead.
"The task ahead will not be an easy one, I understand that, I grasp that but this government that I will lead will work with energy and determination and with vigour and with fresh ideas to embrace each of these challenges and to prosecute this agenda for work for the nation."
Mr Rudd said he wanted to thank his "life partner", his wife Therese Rein.
"I joined this party 25 years ago, we were married 26 years ago.
"She has been an extraordinary support to me.
"You know something? Therese has had a tough year as well.
"I cannot speak more highly of the great support and the great love and encouragement she's extended to me in this political career upon which I've embarked.
"Darling, I really appreciate it," he said, kissing Ms Rein.
===
Australia's Rudd promises generational change
By Rob Taylor
BRISBANE (Reuters) - Australia's new Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, has promised generational change and to bury past battles between unions and business and economic growth and the environment.
Rudd says he will immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and has pledged to withdraw combat troops from the Iraq war, which has labeled a disaster, dumping long-held positions held by outgoing conservative leader John Howard.
"It is necessary for us to embrace the future as a nation united, forged with a common future," said Rudd after a victory on Saturday in elections, ending 11 years of conservative rule.
"I want to put aside the old battles of the past, the old battles between business and unions, the old battles between growth and the environment...," he said. "It's time for a new chapter in our nation's history to begin."
Rudd pinned Labor's revival hopes on heartland family promises to improve hospitals and education, turning schools into "digital" classrooms with computers for every student and to scrap controversial labor laws.
Like Britain's Tony Blair, Rudd has overturned Labor's tax-and-spend past, matching conservative targets to keep the budget in surplus at 1 percent of GDP and deliver tax cuts.
And while he promised to maintain Australia's close alliance with the United States, which he said on Saturday was a "great friend and ally", he will seek a more independent foreign policy. He is expected to forge closer links with China.
Australians are still getting to know Rudd, 50, a politician with strong Christian morals who describes himself as an economic conservative, who has been criticized as being a younger version of conservative Prime Minister John Howard, 68.
"It is too soon to form a judgment about Rudd's personality. We do not know enough about the man to form a final verdict," author Nicholas Stuart concluded after writing an unauthorized biography of the Labor leader.
The personal section of Rudd's official parliamentary biography gives no clues to his personality, stating only: Born 21.9.1957, Nambour, Queensland. Married.
In 1981 Rudd married Therese Rein, whom he met at university and who now runs a successful job placement business. They have three children.
So little is known that when it was revealed in August that Rudd once briefly visited a New York strip club, but was too drunk to remember any details, his approval rating went up and Australians were relieved to know he doesn't work all the time.
The youngest of four children, Rudd grew up in poverty in a small country town in the northern state of Queensland.
His life was thrown into turmoil at age 11, when his father died after a car crash. The family was forced off their farm, shaping Rudd's early political views on the value of welfare.
"When my father was accidentally killed and my mother, like thousands of others, was left to rely on the bleak charity of the time to raise a family, it made a young person think," Rudd said in his first speech to parliament in 1998.
POLITICS IS POWER
Rudd mastered Chinese language, culture and politics at the Australian National University in Canberra, where his tutors described him as serious and self-disciplined, and he joined Australia's diplomatic service after graduation.
He served in postings in Stockholm and Beijing before working for the state Labor government in his home state of Queensland.
Rudd won a seat in Australia's parliament in 1988 and the first four words he spoke in parliament made it clear he had ambitions. "Politics is about power," he said as he started his first speech.
He ended with an equally bold declaration: "I have no intention of being here for the sake of just being here. Together with my colleagues it is my intention to make a difference".
Promoted to the opposition foreign affairs portfolio in 2001, Rudd quickly built a reputation for hard work and gaining media attention, regularly ringing reporters after work hours and on weekends to promote his views on the issue of the day.
He cemented his national profile with regular spots on morning television, where he would spar with junior ministers about the political issues of the day.
Rudd was elected Labor leader in December 2006 and has worked frantically ever since to build his image and profile.
(Additional reporting by James Grubel, Canberra, editing by Michael Perry)
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