New Australian leader gets to work

Signing the Kyoto Protocol on climate change topped the agenda for the new Australian leader Kevin Rudd as he began work today after sweeping to power at weekend elections.

Officials said Mr Rudd, whose victory ended almost 12 years of conservative rule in Australia, also started work on redrafting the country’s labour laws – a key campaign promise.

Mr Rudd entered a second day of meetings today with senior bureaucrats and top advisers about taking over the levers of power, with the formalities of changing government due later this week.

Mr Rudd was due to meet freshly elected lawmakers from his Labour Party on Thursday to choose his ministerial team, which was then expected to be sworn in by Governor-General Michael Jefferey within a few days. The government is in caretaker mode until then.

Deputy Labour leader Julia Gillard said today that Mr Rudd would act quickly on signing the Kyoto pact, paving the way for Australia to have a greater role at a major international meeting on tackling the problem in Indonesia starting next week.

Ms Gillard will become Australia’s most senior woman politician ever when she is sworn in as deputy prime minister, a role that will make her acting leader of the country when Mr Rudd is overseas or on leave.

The prime minister-elect took phone calls from Gordon Brown, US President George Bush and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the weekend, and received congratulatory messages from other foreign leaders.

Mr Rudd’s policy on Kyoto leaves the United States isolated as the only westernised country not to ratify the pact.

His plan for the phased withdrawal of Australia’s 550 combat troops from Iraq also poses challenges for Canberra’s relations with Washington.

Mr Rudd declined to give details of his conversation with Mr Bush, and said he plans to visit Washington next year.

The leaders agreed during the call that they looked forward to working together, said White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Financial markets reacted favourably to Mr Rudd’s election, with investors glad to have the question of who would be in power resolved.

“The market is set up today with the election uncertainty out of the road,” Craig James, chief equities economist at Commonwealth Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires after shares opened 1.4 percent higher today.

The conservative coalition that lost the election meanwhile fell to infighting over who should lead the opposition.

Outgoing Prime Minister John Howard looked certain to lose his place in Parliament, and his nominated successor, deputy Peter Costello, made the surprise announcement yesterday that he did not want the job.

Former Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would stand for opposition leader, and former Health Minister Tony Abbott announced today he would also contest the job.

Counting of final results was still under way today, with only the size of Mr Rudd’s emphatic win to be confirmed, and a handful of closely fought districts to be decided.

Among them was the Sydney suburban district of Bennelong, held by Mr Howard for the past 33 years, leaving Australia’s second-longest serving leader faced with the ignominy of losing not only government but also his seat in Parliament.

Mr Rudd, whose victory ended almost 12 years of conservative rule in Australia, also started work on domestic issues including his goal of providing a computer for every secondary school student.

He also confirmed he would apologise to the indigenous Aborigines on behalf of all Australians for past policies that have helped make the continent’s original inhabitants its most impoverished minority – a highly emotional issue that has divided Australians in the past.

Mr Howard angered many of Australia’s 450,000 Aborigines and their supporters by steadfastly refusing to offer an official apology, arguing this generation should not feel guilty for the mistakes of the past.

Polls show most people support an apology, and Mr Rudd had promised to do so if he was elected. Without nominating a date, Mr Rudd said he would make the apology early in his first term.