By ninemsn staff and wires
Labor leader Kevin Rudd has talked of ”writing a new page in our nation’s history” as he accepted the mantle of Australia’s 26th prime minister.
”Today Australia has looked to the future,” he told an audience in south Brisbane.
”Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward…to make this great country of ours even greater.”
Mr Rudd repeated his policy plans to improve education and funding for public hospitals, support climate change initiatives and reform workplace laws.
”I will be a prime minister for all Australians,” he said. ”My door will always be open to men and women who want to participate in making our country even greater in the future.”
Mr Rudd also thanked his family and colleagues and acknowledged outgoing Prime Minister John Howard’s ”extensive contribution to public service”.
Mr Howard told an audience in Sydney that he ”accepted full responsibility” for the Coalition Government’s loss in the 2007 federal election. (VIDEO: Howard’s concession speech)
”I’ve led a government that has taken this country from deep debt to strong prosperity,” he said.
”I’ve led a government that’s never shirked from making difficult decisions. I’ve led a government that has reformed the Australian economy and has left it the envy of the world.”
Mr Howard, who served four terms as prime minister, said he was handing over power of a nation ”that is stronger and prouder and more prosperous that it was eleven-and-a-half years ago”.
”I believe Australia’s best years lay ahead of her,” he said.
Mr Rudd will lead an Australian Labor Party that forms government with at least 83 seats in the House of Representatives.
The election results have shown some huge swings against the Coalition in Queensland, including a 14.75 swing in Leichhardt.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough lost his Queensland seat of Longman to Labor’s Jon Sullivan.
Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull was victorious in the eastern Sydney seat of Wentworth, increasing his margin by about 1 percent.
”This is your win,” he told Liberal Party faithful.
”This has been a very tough campaign. It ’s had a lot of dramas and a lot of challenges. But we’ve got to the other end of it successfully.”
Labor’s star candidate Maxine McKew has pulled ahead of Mr Howard in Bennelong with 51.1 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis, after 72.2 per cent of the vote had been counted.
But she is yet to claim victory and told an audience of supporters the seat was on ”a knife’s edge”.
In the controversial western Sydney seat of Lindsay, Labor’s David Bradbury was victorious over Liberal candidate Karen Chijoff with 52.9 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.
”I’m a very happy man,” he told AAP.
The seat, held by retiring Liberal MP Jackie Kelly, had its share of controversy when Liberal Party members distributed hoax anti-Muslim pamphlets. ”It shows, with the events of the last week, that this is a government that has run out of ideas,” Mr Bradbury said.
The litmus-test seat of Eden-Monaro on the NSW south coast appears to have been convincingly won by Labor candidate Mike Kelly, who unseats Liberal front bencher Gary Nairn.
Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran has retained his Victorian seat of Gippsland, despite a 1.9 per cent swing against him.
Ageing Minister Christopher Pyne has held on to his South Australian seat of Sturt, despite a 6.4 per cent swing against the Government, and Nationals leader Mark Vaile should comfortably hold his NSW seat of Lyne.
But Labor has won the blue ribbon NSW Nationals seat of Page, with a 8.2 per cent swing to Labor candidate Janelle Saffin.
The election results have mirrored the predictions from Passion Pulse, ninemsn’s poll of more than 80,000 people, which has forecast a Labor landslide.
Mr Howard told an audience in Sydney that he ”accepted full responsibility” for the Coalition Government’s loss in the 2007 federal election. ”I’ve led a government that has taken this country from deep debt to strong prosperity,” he said.
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