Australian PM Rudd concedes election defeat

<P>
<P> Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Saturday conceded election defeat to conservative challenger Tony Abbott, with six years of Labor rule coming to an end as he wished his rival well.
<P> “A short time again I telephoned Tony Abbott to concede defeat at this national election,” he said at a party function in Brisbane.
<P> “As prime minister of Australia, I wish him well in the high office of prime minister of this country.”
<P> With 80 per cent of the votes counted, the Australian Electoral Commission showed Abbott’s Liberal/National coalition was leading in 88 seats in the House of Representatives, to Labor’s 56.
<P> Rudd said Labor had “fought the good fight”.
<P> “Tonight is the time to unite as the great Australian nation,” he added to a cheering crowd of supporters.
<P> “Because whatever our politics may be we are all first and foremost Australian and the things that unite us are more powerful than the things that divide us, which is why the world marvels at Australia.”
<P>

A senior lawmaker in Australia’s ruling Labor Party said her party had lost the national election on Saturday, backing analysts and exit polls, and signaling a sweeping victory for the conservative opposition was all but certain.

A victory for the Liberal Party-led coalition would come despite an apparent lack of overwhelming enthusiasm for opposition leader Tony Abbott, and would mean an end to six years of rule by the centre-left Labor Party, which has been marred by relentless infighting that left the public frustrated and disillusioned. The party has also struggled to win over voters angered by a deeply unpopular tax on carbon emissions that many blame for steep increases in power bills.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television that after 13 per cent of the votes had been counted, her government’s loss was no longer in doubt.

“I am a cautious person by nature,” Plibersek said, “but I think that it’s pretty clear it’s a matter of the size of the victory” for the coalition.

Plibersek’s concession backs analysts and means a coalition victory is a near certainty. Opinion polls and an early exit poll all predicted a resounding Liberal win.