SYDNEY, Nov 24: Australians elected a Chinese-speaking former diplomat as their first new prime minister in more than a decade on Saturday, embracing left-leaning Kevin Rudd as a next-generation leader who rates tackling global warming his top priority.
The emphatic victory brought a sharp and mortifying end to the conservative era of John Howard, who dominated Australia’s political scene for more than a decade but failed to read the signs that voters had grown tired of his rule.
Howard, who reshaped Australia’s image abroad with his unwavering support for US President George W. Bush’s war on terrorism and in Iraq, faced further humiliation. Official results showed him likely to be kicked out of Parliament altogether, though final results on that were not expected until Sunday at the earliest.
Rudd’s pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of Bush’s staunchest allies.
Rudd has promised to pull Australia’s 550 combat troops from Iraq in a phased withdrawal, and to quickly sign the Kyoto Protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Howard had rejected withdrawal plans for Australia’s troops in Iraq, and said no to ratifying Kyoto.
But the bulk of Australia’s foreign, trade and economic policies were not expected to change much.—AP
