In Australia, Howard's campaign lags

Poll's indicate that labor leader Kevin Rudd won Sunday's live debate with Prime Minister John Howard.

By Nick Squires | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 22, 2007 edition

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Sydney, Australia - He has been hailed by President Bush as a "man of steel." He has presided over an economy that is entering its 17th consecutive year of growth and raised his country's international profile by sending troops to Afghanistan, Iraq, and East Timor.

But for all his accolades during 11 years in office, Australia's prime minister John Howard is far behind in opinion polls heading into the Nov. 24 federal elections.

Many voters yearn for a fresh face – and none comes fresher than 50-year-old Labor leader, Kevin Rudd whose squeaky clean image and boyish appearance has earned him the nickname "Harry Potter."

Mr. Rudd is vigorously pushing the line that the prime minister – 18 years his senior – is stale, tired, and out of ideas.

He also sought to draw differences between himself and Mr. Howard on issues such as the Iraq war and climate change as the two leaders went head to head Sunday in a televised debate which is expected to be the only one of the six-week election campaign.

Rudd was widely judged to have performed better in the debate, with a live audience of undecided voters on one commercial television network favoring him 65 to 35 percent.

Rudd, describing himself light-heartedly as "an unemployed diplomat who speaks Chinese," said he was offering Australia a new vision and new leadership.

He said he would abolish the government's controversial industrial relations reforms and tackle climate change by signing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

"How could it be that we're one of the only two developed countries in the world to refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol?" he asked. "I don't understand, I just don't get it."

He would withdraw Australia's 580 combat troops from Iraq, a conflict he described as Canberra's biggest foreign-policy mistake since Vietnam, to which Australia also contributed forces.

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