KEY POINTS:
CANBERRA - Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd has opened the first caucus meeting of the new Labor government, telling them that working families were relying on them.
"Isn't it good to be here? Isn't it good to be in a different room? Isn't it good not to have vacant chairs?" Mr Rudd told the packed government party room in Parliament House.
"It is an honour and a privilege to stand here before you as the leader of the parliamentary Labor party."
The Labor members and senators burst into applause as Mr Rudd opened the meeting, at which he will outline his first ministry.
"We have struggled in the fields, we have fought the good fight, and we have prevailed," Mr Rudd said.
"I look around this room and see so many faces with whom I have fought in the trenches this last year.
"It is such a delight to see each and every one of you here and I salute the efforts which you have made to become representatives of the parliamentary Labor party in this parliament.
Mr Rudd said the hopes and expectations of working families rested on the government's shoulders.
"We have come to this place as their representatives, entrusted with a grave and solemn responsibility - that's to extend a helping hand to them in all the areas which are important and central to their ... lives," he told the caucus.
"We have an enormous burden of responsibility lying ahead of us this three years."
Since its inception, Labor had always stood by working people and would do so in government, Mr Rudd said.
- AAP
