http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071124/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_election A great day for Australia! And one more country that will sign the Kyoto Treaty. HMM, now what are you going to do Bush? The United States is now the only country not to sign the treaty. Thank you to the Australian people who have experienced firsthand the incompetence of those whose only mission was political expediency at the expense of their own country and this planet. I wish them the best under the leadership of Kevin Rudd. This is also a great day for the world. Also, a big thank you goes out to Al Gore whose tireless campaigning for this planet in Australia helped to bring about change. Don't tell me he has no power to make global change or influence events in this world now. Gee, I wonder, will Howard go see An Inconvenient Truth now?
From the link:
Labor Party wins big in Australia
By ROHAN SULLIVAN,
Associated Press Writer
22 minutes ago
SYDNEY, Australia - Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.
Labor Party head Kevin Rudd's pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush's staunchest allies.
Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the U.S. as the only industrialized country not to have joined it.
Rudd said he would withdraw Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq, leaving twice that number in mostly security roles. Howard had said all the troops will stay as long as needed.
Official figures from the Australian Electoral Commission showed Labor far in front after more than 70 percent of the ballots had been counted � with 53 percent of the vote compared to 46.7 percent for Howard's coalition.
Using those figures, an Australian Broadcasting Corp. analysis showed that Labor would get at least 81 places in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament � a clear majority.
It was an embarrassing end to the career of Howard, Australia's second-longest serving leader.
As little as a year ago, Howard had appeared almost unassailable. But on Saturday he was in real danger of becoming only the second sitting prime minister in 106 years of federal government to lose his own seat in Parliament.
end of excerpt
I have a bit more hope today that we can now work together to save this beautiful home of ours.