Labor claims Australia poll win

Labor claims Australia poll win

news.bbc.co.uk

The Labor Party has claimed victory in Australia's election, after early vote counts suggested Prime Minister John Howard had lost his parliamentary seat.

"On the numbers we are seeing tonight Labor is going to form a government," said Labor deputy leader Julia Gillard.

She was one of several Labor figures to claim victory, although leader Kevin Rudd has yet to make a statement.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It's an end of an era in Australia, after 11 years, John Howard has finally been voted out of office.

Kevin Rudd, Labor leader, hasn't confirmed the victory yet, but exit polls and news services have called the election.

(Apparently, Old Mr Howard has lost his seat too!)

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Howard is conceding as I type....

Time for us to leave Iraq methinks I'm sure Herr Bush will be devastated one of his lapdogs is no longer around...

What a shame

P.S - And yes, Infinite...Howard has lost his seat also...So have several other higher profile Liberals...What an awesome night !!

[edit on 24-11-2007 by Rilence]

Howard has phoned Rudd to concede election defeat

ABC radio reported that Howard aides said the prime minister had phoned Rudd to concede defeat

www.jpost.com...

[edit on 24-11-2007 by infinite]

Rudd is speaking now.

His victory speech is very good, he seems a strong politican

reply to post by infinite


Where can you find that? I didn't mean to double post, I knew I should have just finished the post instead of throwing some jump rope in between! Let's see if we can get his victory speech up ASAP. Good heads up, Infinite.

reply to post by infinite


He does indeed seem to be....I guess time will tell here...I'm most interested in what his relationship with the US will be like...I do hope it is not nearly as close as what Howard and Bush had...

And you can bet your bottom $$ we won't be in Iraq by mid-next year at the latest...

Peace

Originally posted by Rilence
And you can bet your bottom $$ we won't be in Iraq by mid-next year at the latest...

Peace

Yeah, same with the United Kingdom too.

Rudd will probably do what Brown has done in the UK, just have a working, professional relationship with the United States.

reply to post by infinite


Yes, methinks you're right Infinite By all means stick to the ANZUS treaty and FTA we have with the US...

But no special favours, no sticking with the US in stupid, illegal, un-winnable wars...That's what a large majority of Australians want...

At the end of the day tho, industrial relations and "Work Choices" largely cost the Liberals government at the end of the day...

Peace

Kevin seems a conscientious man
As long as he controls the unions that may take the labor win as a signal to run amok as they've done in the past he'll be a good leader. As for all the promises well - we'll see.

And cheers to John Howard after a 33 year term of office and 11 of those as PM, he won't be forgotten.

reply to post by Pilgrum


Agreed, Pilgrum...

I do believe the unions will play nice this time around...Lets face it, they've been able to score around 4% PA increases this year for those on EBA's, and there's no reason that won't continue given CPI is around 3%...

And yeah, promises are always just that...they are pollies of course

Peace

Well,

The Queen has probably just lost her job in Australia now

reply to post by infinite


Eventually she will, Infinite, but not in the near term...Even tho that would be icing on the cake

Labor have said they will PROBABLY hold another referendum on Australia becoming a republic toward the end of their term...Whether this happens or not, I'm far from 100% convinced...

The last time we had a referendum on becoming a republic there were too many conditions on it, like parliament would elect a president, not the people...Which meant it had no real chance of getting up...

Now...If Labor put a referendum up where the public directly elected the president, it might just get up....Time will tell

Peace

Very true Infinite, this means Australia will most likely become a Republic within a few years. Neither side of politics is going to back the monarchy now, and I believe Rudd promised a referendum by 2010. I also note that our new Prime Minister is adept at handling foreign relations of all kinds, and he actually speaks Mandarin. I realistically expect our relationships within the Asia Pacific region to grow a lot stronger.

For me, it has been long decade of loathing and shame with such an ass-backwards Govt. I spit on Howard's pathetic legacy of fear, racism, class division and war. His pathetic manner, which was a shallow act at gullible uneducated Australians, always pissed me off. I don't vote either major party but I say good riddance to Howard, and good luck to the USA in doing the same. I'm slightly more proud to be an Australian tonight

reply to post by Shar_Chi


Lets hope so, Shar_Chi

We are so far overdue to become a republic its far from funny...

Agreed...I think you'll find our ties with our large Asian trading partners, particularly China will grow much stronger during Rudd's first term in office..Which can only be a good thing given the resources boom shows no sign of slowing in a major way anytime soon...

Yes, Howard has been especially guilty of creating a class war between those who have the resources to run a business, and those who don't...Those who have employment skills sufficient in order to bargain with an employer Vs the majority who don't...

And yeah, I've certainly got my head held a bit higher from tonight on...It actually feels REALLY good to be an Australian again

Let's hope we don't get jibbed or let down and it continues

Peace

I think most expected this result, and it was probably time for a change in Australia anyway... Howard had been the PM for as long as Thatcher had been here in the UK.

However, I keep getting these echoes of the UK Labour Party's victory in 1997... time will tell if Labor in Australia go the same way.

By the way, for any Aussies on the board... why does the political party spell their name 'Labor' (the American way) when it's spelt 'Labour' when you write it in any other context? I've never understood that.

en.wikipedia.org...

The formal name Australian Labour Party was adopted in 1908, with the American spelling of Labor adopted from 1912. While it is standard practice in Australian English to spell the word labour with a u, the Party has spelt it without since Labor cabinet minister King O'Malley thought he would "modernise" the name;[11] at the time, it seemed likely that Australia would move to American spellings.

reply to post by Shar_Chi


Ah, interesting (even if the prediction is a little off).

Since there'd no indication that Australia intends to change its spelling system in the future, is there any particular reason why it hasn't been changed back to the correct version?

reply to post by Ste2652


Probably because we're notoriously laid back...And simply couldn't be arsed changing it back ?

That's the best explanation I can come up with

Peace

Now Australia will finally ratify the Kyoto protocol! The USA will be on its own now. I think this will be very interesting when it happens, and could mark a very important step foward in helping the environment.
Today is a great day!