Rudd win ushers in new era for Australia politics

The Labor leader, to be sworn in as prime minister Thursday, gained ground with vows to shift policy on Iraq and climate change.

from the November 26, 2007 edition

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In his victory speech in his home state of Queensland, Rudd promised to keep the economy strong. "Today, Australia has looked to the future," he said. "Tomorrow the work begins. It's time for a new page to be written in our nation's history."

A key paradox was why Howard, arguably the West's most successful contemporary conservative leader, lost when he has presided over an unprecedented economic boom, based in part on China's insatiable demand for coal and minerals gouged out of the Australian outback.

Howard warned voters that an inexperienced and union-linked Labor would wreck the economy. But Rudd cast himself as a safe and palatable alternative and played up his youth relative to Howard, who is often perceived as out of touch.

And despite his left-of-center past, Rudd paraded his credentials as a dedicated father of three, a committed Christian, and – crucially – an economic conservative whose wife is a self-made millionaire.

Climate change also loomed over the vote. Rudd has said he will attend next month's UN meeting on climate change in Bali. He has matched European commitments to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2050, and to encourage renewable energy. Australia's signing of Kyoto will leave the US as the only developed nation not to have ratified the treaty.

In the wake of the election, Labor not only controls the federal government, it also holds all eight of Australia's state and territory governments, leaving the Liberal Party in tatters.

Howard's deputy, treasurer Peter Costello, had been expected to assume the mantle of opposition leader, but in a surprise move, he announced that he was turning down the position. That raised the prospect of a leadership showdown between outgoing foreign minister, Alexander Downer, and former environment minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

A key factor in Howard's downfall was his introduction of industrial relations reforms that many Australians believed eroded workers' rights. Among Rudd's first goals is to scrap the reforms, known as WorkChoices.

"WorkChoices really did crack a substantial proportion of the so-called Howard battlers," said Julia Gillard, a former union lawyer set to become the first female deputy prime minister.

With 75 percent of the more than 13.5 million ballots counted, Labor won more than 53 percent and is set to hold up to 86 seats in the 150-seat parliament – a huge swing.

The government's crushing defeat prompted criticism that he should have stepped down a year ago in favor of Mr. Costello, who might have been able to combat Rudd's offer of a generational change. But it rescued the Labor Party from a decade-plus of infighting and political irrelevance.

"He sees himself as a modernist. He sees himself as a consensus leader. He'll govern from the center. He'll be like Tony Blair," says political analyst Paul Kelly from The Australian.

Rudd will cement already strong trade ties with China, a task made easier by the years he spent as a diplomat in Beijing and his fluency in Mandarin.

"He's the first leader of a Western democracy who can talk to the Chinese leadership in their own language," says Dr. Hart. "The US might see him as someone who could help them in China. It could provide a new aspect to the Australia-US alliance."

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