Rudd, New Australian Leader, Targets Kyoto Accord, Labor Rights

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Bloomberg

By Gemma Daley

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Australia's newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd vowed to start work this week on ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and strengthening workers' rights in a booming economy.

Rudd, whose Nov. 24 landslide victory gave John Howard's Liberal Party its worst election defeat, declined in a press conference yesterday to comment on his pledge to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq.

Howard, 68, who may also have lost his own seat in the rout, failed to convince voters that Rudd's Labor Party couldn't be trusted with control of an economy that has grown for 16 years. Rudd, 50, kept his spending pledges to less than Howard to show he was better-equipped to keep down borrowing costs at a time the central bank is battling accelerating inflation.

``Rudd made a point of being an economic conservative and kept spending promises limited amid inflation concerns'' said Professor Carol Johnson, from Adelaide University's School of Politics. ``He has control over the party, with a personal mandate for change,'' she said.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=asSSSpjriEAE&refer=australia

[xxqqqzme]

1. sounds like Howard Dean - fiscally conservative, socially

progressive.

[LynnTheDem]

2. OUT OF IRAQ!

Keep your # 1 promise, Rudd;

TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ.

IRAQ FOR IRAQIS!