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CANBERRA - Labor leader Kevin Rudd's landslide victory over Prime Minister John Howard on Saturday has swept an entire new generation of leaders into Canberra on both sides of politics.
Rudd, 50, has not only the new faces he went into the election with. The wave of seats that rolled to Labor has also given the Prime Minister-elect a large pool of talent for the ministry he intends announcing by the end of the week.
The Coalition has also been thrown open to the talent that has been surging beneath Howard's leadership and the domination of Treasurer Peter Costello and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
The Greens look to hold the balance of power in the Senate and the party they displaced as Australia's third force, the Democrats, has been thrown out of Parliament.
The scale of Howard's defeat, and the likely loss of his Sydney seat of Bennelong, doomed any prospect of the old team remaining as leaders in Opposition.
Costello yesterday announced that he would not stand for leadership of the party and would spend the next term on the back benches. Downer said he intended to complete the next term, but gave no guarantees.
For both sides, Rudd's victory has been a watershed. Despite a last-minute shift back to the Coalition and uncertainty of the intentions of swinging voters, the earlier run of opinion polls had it right.
Across the nation there was a swing of 6.4 per cent to Labor, robbing the Coalition of senior members and up-and-coming talent such as Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough, and shattering the morale of an Administration that had governed Australia for more than 11years.
The probable loss of Howard's seat to former journalist Maxine McKew was a huge body blow to both the party and Howard.
Accepting responsibility for the loss and controlling his emotions, Howard conceded defeat on Saturday night as only the second incumbent Prime Minister in Australian history to lose his place in Parliament.
Last night the seat remained in doubt, but most analysts expect it to fall to McKew.
Across Australia, the swing to Labor had by late yesterday given Rudd 81 seats and Howard 56. ABC Computer projections suggest the final count will leave Rudd with 88 seats and the Coalition 60 - a commanding majority for Labor.
The Senate outcome will be considerably different, although the final result will not be known for some time. New Senators will not take their places until June next year.
On present projections, the Coalition will lose its present majority and claim 37 Upper House seats, Labor 32, the Greens 5, Family First one, and one independent.
For the Liberals, Costello's decision to stand down, spend more time with his family and ultimately quit politics for private business has cleared the way for a dramatic reshaping of a party that with the scale of Rudd's victory probably will not be able to govern for at least two terms.
Costello, a 50-year-old lawyer, said he had argued strongly last year for generational change - in effect, the departure of Howard and his ascension to the long-promised leadership of the party. "The reality was, a majority didn't want me," he said.
Rejecting suggestions he had no stomach for Opposition, Costello said he had spent his first six years in Parliament in Opposition and was not afraid of it. "The party has to invest in long-term prospects and I believe it's time for a generational change. I really do."
Possible contenders for the leadership include 50-year-old former Health Minister Tony Abbott, 53-year-old former Environment Minister and multi-millionaire merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull - who held his Sydney seat of Wentworth against expectations of a Labor win - former Defence Minister Dr Brendan Nelson, 49, and former Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey, 42. Turnbull last night announced he would contest the leadership.
For Rudd, the election has brought a rush of fresh faces to add to those already there, such as environment spokesman and former rock star Peter Garrett.
He named new MPs Mike Kelly, a former defence lawyer who won the bellwether New South Wales seat of Eden-Monaro from the Liberals; West Australians Melissa Parke, a former United Nations' lawyer and former national Labor secretary and Woodside Petroleum executive Gary Gray; former NSW Attorney-General and Environment Minister Bob Debus; Queensland lawyer Chris Trevor, and clinical psychologist Amanda Rishworth.
Other likely stars among the newcomers are former Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Greg Combet and former Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten, who became the public face of the Beaconsfield mine disaster last year.
"There will be many others apart from those," Rudd said. "I look forward to them joining our ranks in Canberra."