Australian voters end Howard era



SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd greeted jubilant supporters Saturday night, as he promised changes in environmental, education and workplace policies as Australia's new prime minister.
"I will be a prime minister for all Australians," the head of the center-left Labor Party told the cheering crowd. "Let us be the generation that seizes the opportunity of today to invest in the Australia of tomorrow. That's the mission statement we have as the next government of this country."
"I want to do it with all of us working together," said Rudd, 50.
In his concession speech, Prime Minister John Howard told supporters that he leaves government with Australia "stronger and prouder and more prosperous than it was 11 and a half years ago."
With less than 75 percent of the vote counted, the Labor Party has won 83 of the 150 seats in Parliament, a net gain of nearly two dozen from the last election, according to the country's Web site results.
Labor garnered about 53.41 percent of the vote, according to the Web site.
Labor's victory over Howard's center-right Liberal-National coalition ends Howard's quest for a fifth term. With nearly 12 years in office, he is Australia's second-longest serving prime minister.

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The new PM is moving fast with his policies......

Australia's new PM Rudd acts swiftly on climate

BRISBANE, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, made climate change his top priority on Sunday, seeking advice on ratifying the Kyoto pact and telling Indonesia he will go to December's UN climate summit in Bali.
Rudd, who swept aside 11 years of conservative rule by John Howard in Saturday elections, also spoke to U.S. President George W. Bush by phone, but would not say when he planned to start a promised withdrawal of 500 Australian combat troops from Iraq.
"I emphasised to President Bush the centrality of the U.S. alliance in our approach to foreign policy," Rudd said in his first media conference on Sunday as prime minister elect, adding he would visit Washington early next year.
Rudd, 50, presented himself to voters as a new-generation leader by promising to pull troops out of Iraq and ratify the Kyoto Protocol capping greenhouse gas emissions, further isolating Washington on both issues.
But while he intends to immediately overturn Howard's opposition to the Kyoto pact, Rudd has said he would negotiate a gradual withdrawal of Australian frontline forces from Iraq.
Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, said he discussed Kyoto ratification with his British counterpart Gordon Brown, as well as Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

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Oz has always marched to their own drum.

Another one bites the dust!!!

KJ

The world is wising up that this "coalition of the willing" was b.s.
rx

You can read a lot into one election.

Explain Sarkozy.