Phee

I'm not usually that interested in politics, this is about the only election I've ever really cared that much about the result of, and I'm one happy camper.


Kevin Rudd to be Australia's next PM

By Will Temple

November 24, 2007 11:30pm
Article from: NEWS.com.au

KEVIN Rudd’s Labor has swept aside 11 years of Coalition rule, destroying John Howard’s hopes for a record fifth term and consigning him to a humiliating exit from public life.

Voters turned to Mr Rudd’s pitch of fresh leadership and new ideas over Mr Howard’s record of economic management and unprecedented years of growth under his government.

"I want to thank all those people in Australia who have placed their trust in me and my team,"Mr Rudd told his home crowd in Brisbane just after 11pm, claiming victory to thumping applause at Suncorp Stadium.

"I say tonight to the nation: 'I will never take their sacred trust for granted'.

"I will be a prime minister for all Australians. It's time for a new page to be written in our nation's history."

He restated education, health, climate change and water, broadband infrastructure and a fair balance at work as his key tasks.

Mr Rudd said he would keep the economy strong but make sure it delivered for working families as well as business.

By 10.15pm John Howard had called the Labor leader to concede defeat as his own seat of Bennelong remained on a knife-edge.

"My fellow Australians, a few moments ago I telephoned Mr Kevin Rudd and I congratulated him and the Australian Labor Party on an emphatic victory,'' Mr Howard told the crowd of Liberal Party faithful gathered at the Sofitel Wentworth Hotel in central Sydney.

Mr Howard said he harboured no ill will to Mr Rudd.

"I wish him well in the task that he will undertake," Mr Howard said. "We bequeath to him a nation that is stronger and prouder."

The Prime Minister said he took full responsibility for the defeat and admitted he could well lose the seat of Bennelong he has held since first being elected to parliament in 1974.

Mr Howard would become only the second sitting prime minister in Australian history to lose his seat.

With counting still to be finalised as early as 9.05pm it looked certain that Labor would win more than the 16 seats it needed to reach office.

The historic victory puts Mr Rudd into the company of Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke as Labor's only modern leaders to take Government from Opposition.

Polls had consistently put Labor ahead since Mr Rudd took the leadership from Kim Beazley last December. But Mr Howard remained defiant to the end, insisting today he could still retain government.

At 9.30pm Labor's candidate for Bennelong Maxine McKew said it was still not clear whether she would win but it had been an "amazing night".

"A wonderful night for Labor, a fabulous, I hope, transforming moment for the country," she said, her husband and former ALP national secretary Bob Hogg beside her.

Mr Howard’s biographer Peter Van Onselen said tonight there was no way the Coalition could come back to win.

“I'm prepared to call this election,” Mr Van Onselen said. “The Labor Party have got enough of a lead that even if the Liberal Party do as well as they can in the west they can't win this election, they are too far behind.

“The reality is that the Labor Party have got enough seats to insulate themselves against a best case scenario for the Liberal Party in Western Australia which means John Howard has very narrowly lost this election.”

By 9.30pm Greens leader Bob Brown welcomed Mr Rudd as the new prime minister of Australia.

"This is a remarkable night for the Australian people," Mr Brown said.

The Coalition campaign was dogged in its final days by scandal in the marginal New South Wales seat of Lindsay, with the prime minister left haplessly condemning an electoral stunt from his party involving fake Muslim pamphlets.

In his last pleas Mr Howard told the people if they changed government they would change the country.

Voters seem to have taken him on his word, punishing him at the polls after unpopular reforms including Work Choices and six straight interest rate rises since winning the 2004 election with the promise of keeping them low.

Primordial

Thanks for starting the thread Phee.

I have been disillusioned for 11 years. I voted against the Liberals in every election that I have been eligible to vote in, only to have my party lose every time. It has been disheartening to see the bad policies, disinformation and outright lies that had been introduced and become somewhat mythological throughout the last 11 years and be helpless to stop the madness. For time and time again my vote never helped. this would have been the last time I would seriously vote, if Labor hadn't have won, I was prepared to do donkey votes forever, or until Oz eventually ousted Autocrat Howard.

I feel a huge weight is finally off of my shoulders!

sunnykerr

I'm not gonna pretend that I know everything (or, quite frankly, anything) about Australian politics, but I'm Canadian, so I know what it's like to have the same party occupy power for over a decada and pretty much becoming corrupted with all that power. So change is always good. Unless it's like the one we had in Canada. But that last part's just my opinion. I'm sure some people love the Conservatives here...

Primordial

I have been an avid observer of Australian and international politics since 1983 - I was 8 years old at the time.

Our economy timeline is almost exactly the same as yours is, the low dollar 5-6 years ago now at ridiculous highs due to global economics, not local things as Howard kept repeating. It is a global economy, there are trends that happen in all countries that he took the credit for when it happened in Australia. He might have played a tiny part in it, but overall he was just an observer - yet he continued to take the credit for the economy highs, that irritated me the most. That and the fact that the groundwork for the current Australia was laid down well before JWH came to power 11 years ago. Labor opened up relations with China, Indonesia etc. When Labor was voted out in 1996, it was just as the tree was about to bear fruit - that was when the Liberals sweeped into power, saw the fruit on the trees that Labor had planted the seeds long ago, tended, cared for them when they were weak seedlings all the way until they were strong fruit trees which had just started to flower. Howard picked the fruit and claimed HE did all the hard work to get them, most people believed him. At least some of us peasants actually do understand politics, economics and Australian history so that we can see through the garbage. That was what irritated me about the Libs the most over the last 11 years. Even during this campaign and after it was over, they still yammer on and on about how they made this country how it is atm. They did make this country more negative, obese and greedy. The rest of it was not due to them really. Anyone can have a 'budget surpluss' if they sold all of their prime assets. I mean, if I sold my car, PC, DVDs, Games, Consoles. TV, Fridge etc I would have a fair few thousand $ surpluss. Is that a good way of gaining money? That is what Howard did with Tel$tra. It was the Government owned/run telecommunications company. Now it is 49% privately owned, which means it is more interested in spending less on the phone lines and services and more interested in earning $$$. That is why our Internet infrastructure is falling apart and can not be upgraded easily, thanks to Howard selling it for a budget surplus that he crows on about 'economic management' being so good by his party... makes me angry and sad the my fellow Australians do not understand these things and remember many more things that would take me too-long to type down on here.

I hope I am not breaking any rules by making this post? I just needed to get some of my frustration about the rubbish the former government spilled out onto this nation for so many years. Now an entire generation do not understand how the economy works due to Howard's disinformation and skewed memory of the political past.

One last thing, when Howard was treasurer in the early 1980s (before Hawke and Labor got into power) the interest rates got to the highest in Australia's history - 22%. It went down over the next decade while Labor was in for its 13 years to 17% (this was also during the 1987 global crash which is very-good handling by Labor.) The current interest rates might look low in the actual number (8%) but that is not how you work out how well-off a nation is. That combined with the average weekly earnings of its people and what the housing industry is going (price of rent and how much a house costs to buy) you work out how well the people and nation is going. The facts are, we were much better off in the 1980s with its global recession than we are right now. Eg: average weekly wages in 1987 were $400pw, rent was $60pw for a 3 bedroom house and interest rate were in their low teens. Now the average weekly wages are $600 (due to JWH's IR laws whittling wages down for everyone, other than people in the mining industry) rent is $360pw interest rates are 8% and rising every 5 weeks by 1/2 a percent. Then he promises 34b$ tax bribes, erm tax cuts which was designed to get him into office again (it worked for all the other elections, along with a fear and smear campaign which drove this country to become more negative and cynical) which would drive up interest rates even more and was only to get him into office for another 3 years, that is stupid. Labor is going to do some tax cuts, but that much is ridiculous. They are going to fix the ruined telephone lines infrastructure after 11 years of neglect (not a priority for Libs, fast broadband internet is only used to download porn ) they are also going to ratify the Kyoto protocol after many years of being only 1 of 2, 1st world nations NOT to ratify it (Australia and U.S.A.) They are going to fix many core things that the Libs neglected over the last decade+ but 3 years in office will not be enough to repair all of the damage caused by 11 years of conservativeness. They won't be able to remove the GST, but they could make it more fair, remove certain foods and services that are essential to living from the GST and remove other state taxes that we are still paying (I am paying GST and state tax which the GST was supposed to have abolished.) Lower the tax rate for low income earners would be great too.

spent cigarette

I'm no conservative, I'm just no fan of Rudd. I for one am very disappointed in these election results, and eagerly await the upcoming recession.

John Crichton, I respect your opinion but I cannot say I agree with it. At all. You feel perfectly content pointing the finger at Howard when it comes to issues like obesity, yet all the positives that have occurred in this country during his leadership are despite of him, and not because? You don't think that's rather contradictive and fickle?

Privatisation can only be a good thing. There is no reason the government should be in complete control of Telstra, and there is no reason why it should not be a profit-seeking company. Surely someone who claims to be so economically informed knows of the advantages competition and privatisation wreak? I'll also remind you that Rudd supports the privatisation of Telstra, so your point here is moot.

Primordial

If a recession is on the cards, then keep an eye on the other countries around us eg: NZ, China, Canada and the US for a start and see if they miraculously have a downward turn in their economies at the same time - that is what happened in 1987. It was globally. Undoubtedly it probably will happen and Labor will be blamed for it even when it would be happening throughout the world where their economies are in the same state.

Look deeper, facts are facts and history is history. I take it that the past Labor era was before your time? Things take many years to come to fruition. He had an age and a half to do something, ANYthing regarding the environment, nothing was done, he even refused outright to sign Kyoto. He also claimed that he did not believe in global warming and that 'Err, err, the jury is still out on climate change.' As good an excuse as any to keep on pumping out the fumes... What about the Nuclear debacle? We have not heard hair nor hide of that lately. Don't tell me you support the 6 Nucular(sic-GWB) power plants too. (jk)

Regarding Tel$tra, the Gov still own 51% so that they are the majority shareholder, that means they have most of the control over what is done. They have done nothing. 40 year-old copper cables are sending data from my PC to the servers in the US as I post this. That is unacceptable these days. I am glad that iinet and other isp's now have free line rentals , screw Tel$tra. Privatisation is always a good thing? If you live in the Eastern States you should know better than to say such a thing. They sold up everything that wasn't tied down then 20 years later when they woke up from their slumber they saw what a mess it caused long-term. WA has started selling its assets recently, it will find out in a decade what a mistake it was too, just as Oz is finding out now about Commbank & Tel$tra. Tel$tra OWN the phone line cables throughout Oz, there is no competition there, it is a monopoly, so they charge anything they see fit for a dismal service. Please research deeper before commenting or PMing me. I am not trying to start an argument. There are just some facts that have been left out here.

-Kelly-

I'm happy he won

Primordial

Hey Kel, glad to see a familiar happy positive face!

spent cigarette

I think you are mistaken regarding Howard's approach towards the environment. Really, Kyoto is nothing but a joke. You don't need to sign a piece of paper in order to do something about climate change. In any case, it's accepted by most, if not all, that Australia is meeting most of the obligations of the protocol as it is without having to sign it. Ratifying the protocol would cost many Australians jobs, and in the grander scale of things would be absolutely worthless.

EDIT: I'll also note that you are talking about climate change as though it is definitely, without question, human interference that is causing it. Now I'm not saying you're absolutely wrong, but by the same token you cannot determine that you are absolutely right either. There are still questions, doubts, inaccuracies. Do not write off people for recognising them.

I still disagree with you about Telstra. The move towards privatisation happened very recently, I don't quite know what you expected to happen in the time frame of a few months.

Primordial

That is why the state Labor governments decided to do their own gas emission limitations, because the feds wouldn't do anything, perhaps that is why Oz is meeting some of those obligations. All due to the state Labor Premiers coming together about 12 months ago to make an agreement about tackling the emissions because the Federal Liberal government were doing nothing except sitting on their hands. I know that the WA Labor Premier agreed to do it with or without Howard.

Buying carbon credits is not the same as actually lowering our emissions etc.

I was talking about the first stage of Tel$tra privatisation that was done almost a decade ago.

I am just glad we have a change after the staleness of Liberals for 11 years. That is what it was like when they came into office, Labor for 13 years became stale so the people moved on. The way the Lib supporters feel right now is how I felt back when they got in power in 1996. So glad that they now understand something from the other side of the fence.

elisheva

Like Sunny, I definitely understand the need for change after 11 years of the same government. Howard going for yet another term seemed excessive to me, honestly - wouldn't it have been better to pass the baton to another candidate?

ride the lightning

I am also happy Kevin won, I think it was time for a change, and I for one have never liked Howard or Costello for that fact.

I don't know that much about politics but I am interested in it, my main issues were climate change/environmental issues and if Liberal won that would mean Costello would win and his views on environmental issues are disgusting, I believe he said something like "It's not going to affect me, so why should we bother" ..

Primordial

They might have had a chance of winning if they did that. It would have been the same motto as Labor had 'New Leadership'. I personally loathe Costello and most of the Liberal front bench so to me it is just a different face on the same values that party stand for. But they might have won if the younger Costello actually led the party a few months ago and was the actual candidate for this election instead of letting Howard do all their hard-work and hoping he wins the election for Costello.

I kind-of still hoped that Costello would have been PM just for the jokes that would come from it! Costello would have been PM and Abbott would have been Deputy PM - Abbott & Costello!

-Kelly-

I never trusted John Howard he was going to bring in "new workplace agreements" after he won :rollleyes:
Channel 7 found out about it and told us on the news before the voting day

cyanide rose

I'm still over the moon to hear the words 'Prime Minister Kevin Rudd' on the news. It's been a long wait but finally we are free of Howard and his colleagues. I've been a Labor supporter since I was a kid, to me they are the party that is most compatible to my values. Mind you, the NSW state government is TERRIBLE, so at the next state election, I'll be giving my vote to someone else (not the Libs though!).