KEY POINTS:
As Labor Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd continued to prepare for power yesterday, knives began sharpening as the former Coalition Government continued to implode after the landslide defeat.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, leader of the junior Coalition partner the Nationals, joined the exodus of luminaries and announced he would not defend his position at next week's leadership ballot.
Accepting his share of responsibility for the thrashing the Government suffered, Vaile said that while he would remain an MP, the Nationals needed fresh talent.
"It's time for a change in the leadership of our party and I don't want to stand in the way of that," he said.
Within the Liberal Party, the blood-letting is about to begin.
Two tough, ambitious candidates have put their hats in the ring to succeed John Howard, whose Sydney seat of Bennelong now appears to be Labor in all but official declaration. Former Health Minister Tony Abbott yesterday joined former Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the race for Liberal Party leadership.
They were joined last night by former Defence Minister Brendan Nelson who is also a serious contender.
Former Foreign Affairs Minister and one-time party leader Alexander Downer, the most senior of the party's surviving hierarchy, will announce today whether he will throw his hat in the ring, but it's considered unlikely.
Former Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey has officially declared he will not contest the leadership, and the intentions of other possible contenders, former Education Minister Julie Bishop and former Minister for Ageing Chris Pyne, remained unknown yesterday.
Former Treasurer Peter Costello has already said he did not want the leadership and would quit politics before the next election.
Downer, 56, until Saturday Australia's longest-serving foreign minister, has been considered a possible leadership contender, but his age and identification with the Howard era counts heavily against him.
He was also Opposition Leader for eight brief months before Howard thundered back, an experience he indicated was enough for a lifetime.
"You can imagine after I've been Opposition leader once before and I've been the Foreign Minister for so long, I don't sort of leap out of bed in the morning thinking 'great, I'd love to be the opposition leader'," he told ABC radio.
Downer would also face a near-impossible fight to beat Turnbull and Abbott, both fresher faces - though not much younger - and itching to lead the Liberals back into power.
Turnbull, a multi-millionaire merchant banker and former head of the republican movement, yesterday outlined his credentials, emphasising that Australia was driven by the energy of enterprise and that he had the business skills to manage it.
"I'm a different person to John Howard and I'm a different person to Peter Costello," he said.
"Im not a lifetime politician."
British-born Abbott, a former amateur boxer who once considered the Catholic priesthood, has taken aggressively to the political ring, and yesterday admitted candidly that the Government had "badly mishandled" its final term.
He said he was more experienced than Turnbull and thus better equipped to handle what would be a rough ride on the Opposition benches.
"Obviously the Coalition parties are going to have a very tough three years," he said.
At this early stage, betting with online gambling agency Lasseters Sportsbook puts Turnbull as clear favourite, comfortably ahead of Nelson and Abbott.
But in the hard world of politics, it is only the vote of MPs that count.