Posted on 11/24/2007 7:39:24 AM PST by sionnsar
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.
Labor Party head Kevin Rudd's pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush's staunchest allies.
Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the U.S. as the only industrialized country not to have joined it.
Rudd said he would withdraw Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq, leaving twice that number in mostly security roles. Howard had said all the troops will stay as long as needed.
Official figures from the Australian Electoral Commission showed Labor far in front after more than 70 percent of the ballots had been counted - with 53 percent of the vote compared to 46.7 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.
It was an embarrassing end to the career of Howard, Australia's second-longest serving leader.
As little as a year ago, Howard had appeared almost unassailable. But on Saturday he was in real danger of becoming only the second sitting prime minister in 106 years of federal government to lose his own seat in Parliament.
Howard took full blame for the drubbing handed to his center-right coalition.
"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.
A new government is unlikely to mean a fundamental change in Australia's close alliance with the United States - its most important security partner - or its growing economic and political ties with Asia.
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.
"Today Australia has looked to the future," Rudd said in a nationally televised victory speech, to wild cheers from supporters. "Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward ... to embrace the future, together to write a new page in our nation's history."
In his concession speech, Howard announced he had phoned Rudd to congratulate him on "a very emphatic victory."
The change from Howard to Rudd also marks a generational shift for Australia.
Rudd, a 50-year-old former diplomat who speaks fluent Chinese, urged voters to support him because Howard, 68, was out of touch with modern Australia and ill-equipped to deal with new-age issues such as climate change.
Howard campaigned on his economic management, arguing that his government was mostly responsible for 17 years of unbroken growth, fueled by China's and India's hunger for Australia's coal and other minerals, and that Rudd could not be trusted to maintain prosperous times.
Labor has been out of power for more than a decade, and few in Rudd's team - including him - has any government experience at federal level. His team includes a former rock star - Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett - a television journalist and former union officials.
But analysts say his 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's four straight election victories since 1996 made him one of Australia's most successful politicians. He refused to stand down before this election - even after being urged to do by some party colleagues.
Another industrialized society commits economic suicide.
Jolly great coincidence.
Damn, looks like Aussies have 2/3 brain dead like us.
Probably, yes.
Bad news for Australia and for the U.S.A.
Looks as if the US is now truly the last hope for civilization.
Nah, Rudd knows that Kyoto is just for show. Rudd knows if we ever get close to enough signatories for Kyoto to take effect, someone will "un"-sign. The Kyoto Protocol was never meant to actually take effect.
The longer I hear about the Global Warming hoax, the more I want to slap every single whiny, doom-and-gloom idiot leftist on the planet who speaks of this crap as if it’s as sure as a blue sky in the morning.
Then again, they’ll probably invent a new word for “blue” and insist was all call it that, because the word “blue” has been used in a “disciminatory” way to describe depressed people.
What a shame at least half the planet is on the side of the brain-dead left, and a lot of the right doesn’t seem to realize the danger.
I see they elected a complete fool.
What a horrible, horrible shame. John Howard was absolutely wonderful. I’ll never forget all he did for us.
Watch the Aussi economy go into recession once the Kyoto standards are enacted. Sadly this may be just a preview of what the US economy will be doing in 2009 with Hillary in the White House.
And New Zealand
Saw this editorial from a New Zealand newspaper praising Howard the other day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10477975
Yup. I for one will not contribute to their economy. I had considered an Australian vacation--but will now cross them off my list.
As with the founding of this country, all it takes is a handful.
Whether or not one is religious the story of the tower of babel is what I equate our modern “global society” to. The world is becoming more and more convinced that man is ruining the environment that it’s ruining space ( saw that on Drudge) and of course is persecuting those who are wishing to control all others. The ideal of the tower of babel was to build so high that they could reach God in heaven and in a sense the world now is hoping to bridge to each other to build a heaven on earth led by diversity and unity (how those two opposing words can be used together is beyond me but whatever). We live in simply astoundingly arrogant times led by worshipers of humanity and not God.
Damn. Australia, what happened to ya?!
A generation has grown up thinking that economic prosperity was not connected to economic liberty. They have forgotten the previous era of big government stagnation. Soon their memories will be refreshed. They are also a good target for the southeast asian branch of AlQuaeda.
Rudd has named global warming as his top priority.
Fiction is his priority? and the 550 troops they have in Iraq are bankrupting his country? He sounds like a tool. Almost Kookcinichesque.
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