Australia’s conservative leader Tony Abbott swept into office in national elections on Saturday as voters punished the outgoing labor Government for six years of turbulent rule and for failing to maximise the benefits.
Abbott, a former boxer, Rhodes scholar and trainee priest, promised to restore political stability, cut taxes and crack down on asylum seekers arriving by boat. “From today I declare that Australia is under new management and Australia is once more open for business,” Abbott told jubilant supporters in Sydney. Polls had closed in Australia’s most populous states like Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Capital territory.
“I now look forward to forming a Government that is competent, that is trustworthy, and which purposefully and steadfastly and methodically sets about delivering on our commitments to you, the Australian people,” Abbott added. The coalition has won more than 76 seats of the 150-seat House of Representatives, which is enough to form a government in their own right, according to Sky TV.
Earlier in Brisbane, Rudd told his supporters that he had called Abbott to concede defeat. “A short time ago I telephoned Tony Abbott to concede defeat at these national elections,” Xinhua quoted Rudd as telling his supporters. While conceding defeat, Rudd also said that he would not seek to lead his party any longer. He had seized the party’s leadership from Julia Gillard nine weeks back.
The Abbott-led Coalition, which is a formal alliance of broadly centre-right parties, was headed for victory, according to a Sky News/Newspoll exit poll. Abbott is currently the leader of the Opposition and the leader of the liberal Party. It predicts the Coalition will win 97 seats, labor 51 and independents two, The Australian reported.
less than 10 minutes after east coast booths closed, cabinet minister Stephen Smith declared labor had lost the election. He told the ABC the result could be worse than 1996, when labor was reduced to 49 seats. “This is a night where regrettably we will see the defeat of a labor Government,” Smith said. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke also conceded labor had lost. He said it was ‘sad’ to see the once-proud party in the state it had found itself. State-by-state exit polling suggested labor is headed for a rout in NSW, where the Coalition is tipped to pick up 14 seats, and Queensland, where it stands to gain seven. Rudd is also facing the loss of his own Brisbane seat of Griffith, where Newspoll suggests he is neck-and-neck with liberal National Party candidate Bill Glasson.