KEY POINTS:
John Howard was gracious in defeat on Saturday, giving a speech in Sydney that left many of his supporters sobbing.
He pulled out a line or two from the campaign though, cheering them with assurances that the Liberals had bequeathed to Labor an Australia that was much stronger, prouder and more prosperous than it was when he first became Prime Minister
It didn't matter that the party has been left in tatters. That was for another day - the next day as it happened, with Mr Howard's heir apparent Peter Costello kicking the hospital pass for touch.
The ballroom at the Wentworth Hotel was in a very forgiving mood.
Mr Howard was mobbed as he left the ballroom but returned a short time later to talk to spend an hour or so with the party faithful.
Howard's speech reflected the experience of someone who has been an MP for 33 years, a party leader for 15 and Prime Minister for 11. He spoke with no notes but was focused, ordered, direct and rather irritated at the sentimentality of the crowd.
Kevin Rudd up in Brisbane buoyed a jubilant crowd by outlining in a more Tony Blair style his plans for consensus politics. In that sense it mattered more what he said and why he didn't give too much away just yet.
"Today we the Australian nation have decided that we would move forward, to plan for the future, to prepare for the future, to embrace the future and to get us as Australians to unite and write a new page in our nation's history, to make this great country of ours, Australia, even greater."
Mr Rudd paid tribute to the "great Australian trade union movement," but that was in the context of them having helped terminally ill Bernie Banton battle big business over compensation for asbestos.
If Mr Rudd was sending a signal about the unions, it was that he hopes to give them respectability, and the power to do their jobs, not his.
Mr Rudd's clearest message was to Mr Banton, who lay dying in a Sydney hospital bed: "I say to Bernie if he is watching tonight: 'Mate, you're not going to be forgotten tonight. The values for which you have stood and fought, the fact that you have been supported in your fight by the great Australian trade union movement ... Bernie, you stand out as a beacon and clarion call to us all about what is decent and necessary in life and, mate, I salute you'."