November 26 2007 - Immigration to Australia to change with Kevin Rudd being elected Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd's Labor Party won Australia's election, ending John Howard's 11-year rule after promising to tackle climate change, restore workers' bargaining power and withdraw Australian troops from Iraq.
Labor won 83 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, gaining 23 seats from 2004, according to the Australian Election Commission. The Liberal-National coalition has 56 seats, with two independents and nine undecided, the commission said on its Web site.
"I will always govern in the national interest," Rudd said in a press conference in Brisbane today, adding "we will not breach the trust" of the Australian public, he said.
Rudd, 50, a former diplomat, takes control of an economy that has grown for 16 years. In an election campaign dominated by debate on interest rates and promises of big income tax cuts, Rudd kept his spending pledges to less than Howard to convince voters he was better-equipped to keep down borrowing costs at a time the central bank is battling accelerating inflation.
"Rudd has convinced people there is nothing to fear from a switch to Labor," said Clive Hamilton, director of Canberra- based think tank the Australia Institute. "His promise to ease labor laws and tackle climate change resonated with voters and he is seen as a safe pair of hands."
Winners, Losers
Foreign Minster Alexander Downer, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Health Minister Tony Abbott kept their seats, while Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough and Special Minister of State Gary Nairn were casualties.
Labor winners included high profile ex-union leaders Greg Combet, formerly Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, and Bill Shorten, Australian Workers Union secretary until earlier this year. Shorten made headlines in April as miners in Tasmania state worked for 14 days to free two of his members trapped underground by a rock slide.
Labor won't hold a majority of seats in the Senate, unlike Howard during his last term. The Liberal-National coalition has 37 seats against Labor's 32, according to the ABC.
The balance of power will be held by five Greens senators, the sole Family First representative and anti-gambling independent Nick Xenophon.
A fluent Mandarin speaker, Rudd has promised closer ties with Asia and to pull Australian troops out of Iraq. Some 64 percent of voters opposed the nation's 1,600 soldiers serving in Iraq, according to a Newspoll survey on Oct. 3. Rudd will keep the 900 personnel in Afghanistan.
Costello Decision
Howard, 68, said he is unlikely to retain his seat, becoming the first Australian leader to be voted out of parliament since 1929. He accepted responsibility for the defeat and anointed his deputy, Treasurer Peter Costello, as his successor. Costello said today that he would not contest the position, but that he will serve in his seat.
"I will not seek or accept the Liberal leadership," Costello told reporters in Melbourne. "I will be looking at building a career post politics."
Australia's second-longest serving leader, Howard was one of the first allies of U.S. President George W. Bush to send troops to Iraq.
Howard's bid for a fifth term faltered when his claim to be a better economic manager than Rudd -- one of the central planks of his campaign -- was undermined by the first interest rate increase during an election campaign.
Interest Rates
The quarter-point increase lifted the Reserve Bank's benchmark rate to an 11-year high 6.75 percent, and was the sixth since Howard was returned to power in 2004 election on a promise to keep mortgage rates low.
Chinese President Hu Jintao invited Rudd to visit Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games when they met in September. Rudd also met Bush when the two leaders were in Sydney for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in September.
Rudd said today that he told Bush, who had called with congratulations yesterday, that he would like to visit the U.S. next year. He declined to say if they discussed Iraq. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also called Rudd and invited him to visit Bali for a climate change conference next month.
Rudd will ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the multination accord to counter climate change with mandatory greenhouse-gas reductions, something that Howard, along with Bush, has refused to do. The environment was also a topic discussed with U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday, Rudd said.
Share Cropper's Son
The son of a share cropper in Queensland, Rudd attended Australian National University before becoming a diplomat in Stockholm and Beijing between 1981 and 1988. He worked for the Queensland state Labor Party before entering parliament in 1998.
Voters were attracted to his pledge to abolish the government's workplace laws, which prompted 500,000 people to march in protest in 2005. The reform eliminated unfair dismissal rules and made it harder for workers to strike.
Labor has promised a package named "Forward With Fairness," which allows workers to bargain as a group and has a "safety net" to safeguard wages and conditions.
Labor will also build a national high-speed Internet network, boost funding for traineeships, and matched the government's promised income tax cuts.
Labor's victory won't have much impact on the share market, according to analysts, including Adnan Kucukalic, director of Australian equities research at Credit Suisse Group in Sydney.
"Both parties are so close on everything that the outcome is not going to be the be all and end all of the market," he said.
"History has shown there's usually little impact from elections," said Richard Wallace, who helps manage the equivalent of $138 million at Wallace Funds Management.
Rudd, Labor's fourth leader since Paul Keating lost the 1996 election to Howard, becomes Australia's 30th prime minister. Labor's victory is only the seventh time voters have ousted their government since the beginning of World War II.
For more details, contact Ambler Collins at
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