11/28/2007Australia's opposition Labor Party swept to victory in Saturday's federal election by defeating the ruling Liberal-National party coalition, ending 11 years of conservative rule. Labor leader Kevin Rudd, a 50-year-old former diplomat, will be the country's new prime minister.
He replaces John Howard, who has been in power since 1996. Howard will retire from politics, having failed to hang on to his own parliamentary seat in the vote.
Global warming and the Iraq war were the two main campaign issues. The Howard administration has been less than keen to tackle global warming.
The Australian government signed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change, but refused to ratify the treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Howard was thus a strong ally of the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush, which has withdrawn from the Kyoto treaty.
Yet Australia has been struck by severe drought for two years in a row. The dry spells have hit harvests of wheat, rice and other grains hard. Many Australian households remain affected by water-use restrictions.
In the campaign, Rudd's Labor Party criticized the Howard administration for its inaction on climate change and vowed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. A growing number of industrial countries have been stepping up efforts to tackle environmental problems, and Australian voters, too, are now increasingly aware of its importance. That led to greater support for the party from voters.
Rudd plans to start work to ratify the Kyoto Protocol early next year. We welcome the return of Australia, an influential country in the Asia-Pacific region, to the Kyoto camp.
The move is certain to help propel international efforts to develop a new post-Kyoto framework to curb climate change.
Meanwhile, Rudd called the Iraq war a "mistake." He called for a gradual withdrawal of the 1,500 Australian troops from Iraq.
As one of his first steps after taking the reins, he intends to hold talks with the United States over his plan to pull his country's 550 combat troops from Iraq.
Australia's about-face on Iraq comes after a similar development in Poland, where the opposition camp unseated the conservative ruling party in October.
Poland's new leader, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has promised to withdraw all his country's 900 troops from Iraq. These defeats of Bush allies have accelerated the weakening of "the Coalition of the Willing," as Bush called his allies.
Although Rudd berated the Howard administration for subserviently following the United States, Rudd has nevertheless pledged that maintaining Australia's close ties with the United States will be central to his government's foreign policy.
Rudd is likely to place greater emphasis on Australia's relations with Asian countries, and depart from his predecessor's excessive focus on its alliance with the United States.
On the campaign trail, Rudd didn't talk about radical changes in the nation's economic policy. His moderate political posture apparently eased voter anxiety about a change of power, winning him support across a broad range of constituencies.
Rudd's foreign policy views may resonate with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who has proposed a diplomatic "synergy" with the United States and the rest of Asia. Both key allies of the United States, Japan and Australia, share a common interest in the region's stability and prosperity.
There are many challenges that can be effectively tackled through mutual cooperation.
One is to promote the idea of an East Asian community, an issue that Japan and Australia should work closely together on.
It is heartening to see a new Australian government that shows strong commitment to protecting the Earth. This will be the central issue on the agenda at the next Group of Eight summit in 2008, which will be held at the Lake Toyako resort in Hokkaido.
Japan should try to deepen and expand its cooperation with Australia as a partner in its diplomatic efforts to get countries like the United States, China and India to become more seriously involved in the fight against global warming.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 27(IHT/Asahi: November 28,2007)
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