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Kevin Rudd owes John Howard a lot; he may also prove to be a success AS ANY sports fan knows, Australia loves a winner. So to the outsider it is a shock that its voters on November 24th so decisively turfed out the government led for more than 11 years by John Howard (see article). Much the most successful prime minister of modern times, he had led Australia into what will be its 17th consecutive year of economic growth—probably of more than 4% this year. Moreover, the Labor opposition to him seemed, not that long ago, a shambles—divided, old-fashioned and...

Washington will undoubtedly be watching Australia’s relations with China under Mr. Rudd, who was once a diplomat in Beijing and speaks fluent Mandarin. When President Hu Jintao of China was in Australia in September, Mr. Rudd spoke to him in Chinese. But with China a huge buyer of Australian resources, Australia had already been moving closer to Beijing. Under Mr. Howard, President Hu was the first nondemocratic leader to address the Australian Parliament. A looming source of friction between the United States and Australia is over Australia’s uranium policy; Australia has some of the largest uranium deposits in the world....

Labor Party wins Australian election By Bernard Lagan in Sydney Australia's long-serving conservative government not only lost yesterday's Australian election but its leader, John Howard, became only the second Prime Minister in Australia's history to lose his seat in Parliament. The Australian Labor Party, out of power nationally since 1996, stormed back into government, winning at least 20 more seats in Australia's 150-seat House of Representatives. The Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, 50, needed only 16 extra seats to form Government. Mr Rudd, a former diplomat and China specialist, will have Australia's first female deputy Prime Minister at his side -...

THE Coalition's election hopes have been bolstered by a poll putting it closer to Labor than any time during the election campaign. The Galaxy poll reportedly has Labor with a primary vote of 52 per cent and the Coalition with 48 per cent. ... Liberal sources insist that the electorate’s mood is more uneven than the headline polls have indicated until now and that the election is closer than thought. John Howard told the National Press Club today that he still believed the Coalition could win, and then promptly jumped onto a plane to blitz marginal seats in Queensland. Kevin...

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his Ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was...

A MAN has been arrested after a flaming shoulder bag was thrown over the fence of the Prime Minister's Sydney residence, Kirribilli House. Local police were called at 11.48am (AEST) after the man allegedly lit the woven cotten bag and threw it over the gate, a NSW police spokeswoman said. AFP protective services personnel put out the fire and detained the man, in his 30s, until police arrived. He was taken into custody and was being questioned at North Sydney police station.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Asia-Pacific climate change agreement was a milestone because it marked the first time the world's biggest polluters had pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Australia's Prime Minister said on Sunday. "This is the first such agreement involving the major polluters -- the United States, China and the Russian Federation," John Howard told a news conference following the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. "And (it) is therefore a very important component, along the hard march of mankind towards reaching a sensible, workable, international agreement to cover the period post-Kyoto, that is 2012 onwards," he said. Pacific Rim...

President Bush arrived in Sydney, Australia yesterday to attend the annual Asian-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC). Today he met again with his friend and ally Australian Prime Minister John Howard as they toured Sydney Harbor. The two leaders then met with Australian troops on Garden Island Naval Base where they joined them for lunch. President Bush personally thanked the troops for their continued service in the War on Terror. (Transcript) Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino: “[The president] said he was very proud to be with them, they're very courageous. And one of the things I overheard him say to some...

GEORGE W. Bush was an intelligent and likeable man, Prime Minister John Howard said today ahead of the US President's arrival in Australia. Large parts sections of central Sydney have been cordoned off with a 3m security fence amid predictions of violent protests to coincide with Mr Bush's visit to the APEC leaders' summit. Protesters are keen to target Mr Bush over the US-led involvement in the Iraq war and his perceived failure to address climate change. But Mr Howard today had only praise for Mr Bush, saying the US President had a "special position" as the democratically elected leader...

A major ally in the war on terror faces an election this fall. Radio listeners in Sydney last week were treated to some good ole Aussie plain talk on the war on terror. "It's not all negative and nobody pretends that it's easy," Prime Minister John Howard told talk show host Ray Hadley. "Pulling out will guarantee a descent into civil war and chaos and a victory for terrorism and we're totally opposed to that." And what of the much-maligned President Bush? While he's "under pressure at home," Mr. Howard retorted, "he's not a person who succumbs easily to pressure,...

JOHN Howard will today rule out an imminent withdrawal of Australian combat troops from Iraq, staking an election-year position on staying the course in the Middle East. The Prime Minister will spell out an unambiguous commitment to a long-term Australian military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a major security speech, Mr Howard will stress the stark consequences of a failure by the US and its allies to secure Iraq. He will argue that the military coalition cannot allow weariness, frustration or political convenience to dictate strategy in Iraq.

There is evidence that Australian troops were being specifically targeted in Iraq, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said yesterday. The warning came as Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari pleaded in Canberra yesterday for Australia and other coalition forces not to "cut and run" from his country as it entered a crucial phase for its future. Reports in Britain have tipped an announcement on British troop withdrawals within incoming prime minister Gordon Brown's first 100 days in office. Australian soldiers have repeatedly come under fire from small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and increasingly sophisticated roadside bombs in recent weeks, with three men injured...

JOHN Howard is paving the way for nuclear power and an expansion of the uranium industry in an election-year attempt to split Labor. As Labor prepares to debate its new uranium mining and nuclear policy on the floor of the party's national conference in Sydney today, the Prime Minister will use climate change and job-creation arguments to put further pressure on a divided Opposition. Mr Howard will promote uranium exports and "climate-friendly" nuclear power as part of a political campaign to cast himself as forward-looking and Labor as being against progress and jobs.

Prime Minister John Howard has been labelled the "butcher of Baghdad" by a Zimbabwe government minister angry over the Australian leader's role in his nation's suspension from the Commonwealth. Zimbabwe declared it would pull out of the Commonwealth after Howard helped convince Commonwealth leaders to extend the African nation's suspension from the body. Howard's role has angered Zimbabwe's government MPs seeking parliamentary approval for President Robert Mugabe's withdrawal decision. Foreign Minister Stan Mudenga referred to him as the "butcher of Baghdad" - a reference to Australia's participation in the war in Iraq. Mudenga said Howard had declared that Zimbabwe would...

JOHN Howard is enjoying strong support among voters younger than 30, but he risks losing office to a backlash from their parents. A benchmark study of public attitudes, conducted last month and detailed to The Australian, shows the Prime Minister was in trouble with the electorate before Kevin Rudd became Labor leader last December. The big issues that were turning people off him and the Government were climate change and Work Choices - but not interest rates - according to the focus groups run for the Ipsos Mackay Report a month ago. The findings contain a mixed blessing for Labor....

Mr Howard said the deal would bring the two countries closer Australian Prime Minister John Howard has dismissed suggestions that a security declaration with Japan could strain ties with China. Mr Howard is set to sign the ground-breaking deal during a four-day visit to Japan which begins on Sunday. The agreement is thought to include co-operation on terrorism, peacekeeping and disaster relief. Australia has been looking to exert more influence in Asia, in terms of business as well as regional security. Full details of the pact have not been revealed but it is expected to include plans for greater...

TODAY, John Howard has been Prime Minister of Australia for 11 years. In about three weeks he will become, at 67 years and nine months, Australia's second-oldest serving prime minister. These two facts are of a piece with Labor's plan to run former ABC presenter and journalist Maxine McKew against Howard in his Sydney seat of Bennelong. There is a perceived benefit for the ALP nationally to run a younger, female, high-profile and personable candidate in Bennelong, one who will magnify and broadcast the messages from a local seat campaign at a federal level. McKew's contest with Howard will not...

Prime Minister John Howard today ruled out following Britain's lead and reducing troop numbers in Iraq. Australia also has about 550 soldiers in southern Iraq, based at Tallil, and Mr Howard says there are no plans to reduce those numbers. “You've got to maintain critical mass and to do the job, according to our defence advice, you need that,” he told reporters in Perth. “The reason I understand Mr Blair will give is that conditions have stabilised in Basra so that there can be this decision taken. “They will still have 5,000 and we will 550. “I don't think it...

The main contenders in this year's Australian federal elections have been forced into a surprisingly early and forceful debate on the country's involvement in the US-led coalition in Iraq after an attack by John Howard, the prime minister, on Barack Obama, the US Democratic presidential candidate. Mr Howard sparked a storm of criticism, and a strong rebuff from Mr Obama, after suggesting on Sunday that terrorists would want Mr Obama elected because of his proposal to withdraw US troops from Iraq by March 2008. ... They also noted that attacking Mr Obama was unlikely to damage Mr Howard's reputation in...

An allied withdrawal timetable from Iraq is al-Qa'ida's primary goal THE one thing no one is saying about Prime Minister John Howard's remarks is they are obviously right. Asked about US Senator Barack Hussein Obama's plan to withdraw all US forces from Iraq by March 31, 2008, Howard replied: "If I were running al-Qa'ida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats." Certainly al-Qa'ida agrees. After the November 2006 elections handed control of the US Congress to the anti-war...