Best thing that has ever happened - we have been partying all night long!

Been waiting ages for Howard to be kicked out - he has been PM since I was 20, and its been a complete disaster. If we had him for another term, might as well just rename Australia to the 53rd(?) US state - you wouldn't notice the difference.

...

And the funniest thing - Howard has LOST HIS SEAT. This has only happened to the sitting PM once before - about 90 years ago. Guess he should have quit after he won the last election.

Woohoo!! :)

This is what I never understood about you Rudd supporters, John Howard was a 'complete disaster'?

Last time I looked outside, the country seemed to be running pretty fine.

Don't use the interest rate card either, it was gonna go up one way or another.

The Howard government defied 70% of local opinion against it, and built a freeway through the middle of my city to please the local businesses. To make it worse, they did it after promising not to in the 2001 elections in order to steal the seat from a retiring National member. It is no surprise that I am ecstatic to see them out on their ass.

Well this Canuck is happy to get Howard out of there. Now lets just hope this Rudd chap improves Australia's foreign and environmental policies.

Lol @ stof.

Environmental: All Rudd is doing is ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, in and of itself a useless accord. Now that he has done this he is sitting back and saying that the country has made it's contribution. The funny thing is that under Howard Australia was already on track to meet it's Kyoto targets, unlike a lot of European nations- No change

Social: Rudd and Howard are both conservatives- No change

Iraq war: Rudd has promised to remove 'active troops.' This is around half our commitment to Iraq and amounts to about 500 troops (thats about one threehundreth of the US commitment)- No meaningful change

Economic: DANGER!!! Labor has a horrible history of high unemployment and high interest rates. The Howard government has put the Australian economy in it's best position ever- Tremble in fear.

bring in the new boss, just like the old boss. Hopefully we'll stop selling all our public services for short term gains.

Off topic, I've always wondered why the Liberal government here is not liberal at all, and labor is misspelt. 

lol, i too have wondered about both those things

IMO, Rudd has done more for the country in his first couple of weeks in power than Howard has in his entire tenure.

Without Labour signing Kyoto, there is a real chance the Bali signing may never have happened.

Now we just have to repair the financial damage that the Liberals have done over the last 10 years...

@ Shams.

Firstly, what caused the Bali signing was the Minister from Papua New Guinea telling the USA delegation that if they were not prepared to lead they should "get out of the way." Half an hour later the US delegation came back and agreed to sign.

Secondly, the Bali agreement commits no nation to targets at all. Furthermore, it doesn't even acknowledge that countries like India and China should have targets. It is, for all intensive purposes, an agreement to find an agreement. In other words, it will make NO DIFFERENCE to global emissions levels AT ALL.

Thirdly, exactly what financial damage are you accusing the government that cleared $90 billion dollars in Labor-generated government debt and presided over the longest period of growth and lowest interest rates in history of causing?