A notable absentee from the list of "reasons why" is the Howard mendacity factor.

It is unusual for a country to put up, for so long, with a leader so obviously willing to embrace the lie as a means of communication.

By the end of his term, "Honest John" had told so many, that it was no longer possible to accept anything he said at face value. When you reach the point where your statements on any topic - retirement, workchoices, immigration, foreign policy or whatever - are automatically discounted, you have lost a large part of your audience.

This explains why it didn't matter what the Liberal spruikers tabled during the campaign, whether economic good news or Rudd's ear-wax habits, nothing made the slightest difference.

Personally, I think that the manner of his departure, losing seat and election, is a fitting tribute to Howard's contribution to values-based politics.

The saddest thing of all is that even if you were to sit down with him and spelled it all out, he still wouldn't understand why it is a problem.

Whether Rudd and his party understands, will determine whether our faith in our democratic processes will recover, or continue to disappoint.

Dear fellow readers and writers

We can embrace the election result for what it signiifes - a majority of people voting for positive change. In so doing, we can also acknowledge that it was not simply a Labor victory or a Coalition loss; in a number of key marginal seats it was the Green vote that made the difference - the sizeable Green vote is a significant feature of this election that has been downplayed in this article. We can see this for what it 'says' - that people are expressing their heartfelt hopes and beliefs.

This election result heralds a new kind of Australian thinking, I believe. It says, perhaps, that a majority of us no longer see Australia as isolated, but as a responsible member of a global community with a major role to play in creating a peaceful, collaborative, mindful world in which we make collective decisions that are in the best interests not only of this nation, but of the global community of nations and of our shared planetary habitat as well.

I heard a new kind of graciousness, expansiveness and generosity in Howard's concession speech and Rudd's victory speech that set the scene for this new way of thinking. Howard was respectful and accepting, and looked to Australia's positive future under a new regime. Rudd was focussed on the hard work ahead, the carefully considered positive changes that could be made, and his pledge to be a Prime Minister for ALL Australians. This is positive talk and marks a maturing ethos in Australian politics. I believe people voted for this kind of positivity. We can be proud of politicians like this.

We can all choose to 'hear' and to make every effort to understand the underlying feelings and beliefs behind the ideas that people express everywhere in our lives. It is in the listening and working things out together that we build strong nations.

My warmest wishes to all of my fellow Australians who read this.

Costello and Howard bragged about what a great economy they had delivered but it wasn't shared equally. They came to power on the backs of the battlers in 2004 and then left them high and dry with climbing interest rates leaving thousands with negative equity in properties they were encouraged to "aspire" to or worse in the hands of a mortgagee sale. The country is awash with a mountain of personal debt equating to 160% of household incomes while the Commonwealth continually boasted of zero debt and the economy struggled for lack of appropriate investment in infrastructure, education and health.

The electorate were then treated as complete idiots as the Liberals went about attempting buying votes and promising to do all the things they, as a government, should have been doing throughout their term. The Mersey hospital in Tasmania is a perfect example with hundreds of millions of dollars committed to save a hospital all the health experts agreed should be closed and the Liberals still lost the seat.

Leon Bertram described the factor of climate change as "hysteria". I would prefer to assert that the Liberals totally miscalculated the genuine concern throughout the broader community, not just the young, and the sense that despite vague mutterings the Liberals still did not believe in the urgency required to tackle the problem.

The mixed message of "Going for Growth" at current rates of 3.5%, or more if they could manage, meant that the economy would increase by a factor of 6X or more by 2050 and unless major restructuring away from a carbon based economy took immediate effect this growth rate would be totally unsustainable and counterproductive.

Finally as another post indicates the impact of the Greens preference vote helped many Labor candidates over the line. A factor that I suspect Rudd will have no problem in now ignoring and claiming the victory entirely as his own.

As they say, many small reasons can make one big reason. I don't
see a Lib loss as such a bad thing right now. Howard was getting
past it, the Govt was getting stale. Rudd is a bright kid, his
problem will be all those wanting to cash in on favours. One
man does not make a Govt.

We owe alot to Costello, IMHO far more then to Howard. He's
left the economy in just about too healthy a state. Peoples
expectations have gone through the roof. He's paid off the debt,
left the coffers full, with virtually full employment.

Its a shame that Howard never gave him a chance. He's dominated
parliamentary debate a bit like Keating used to. He's a bright
guy, but not enough of a crawler for politics. He clearly does
not need politics as much as Australia needs a good treasurer.

So I wish him well and he'll no doubt thrive in private enterprise,
with a huge salary. He's done his bit for Australia. Thanks Pete.

As to Workchoices, sure it went against the Govt. OTOH it was
the correct policy, if the rest of Australia is ever going to
join the global economy and not just depend on mining and farming.

Business will rethink who they hire and if Labour gets it wrong
as in the past, we'll be back to job creation schemes etc. But
for a while, they will be able to ride on the present booming
economy, thanks to Costello.

"Why the Ruddslide ?" was a very fair comment I felt, even for a Liberal supporter! However, I shall be very interested to see whether Kevin keeps true to his polemic and when things go wrong from time to time, as inevitably they will, to see how the press will treat him. He has had a very smooth ride so far without really committing himself to very much. It is also hard to criticise a man, or a party when it hasn't been in power and has had no policies to enable. I despise name calling of politicians and it only reflects the sort of intellect of the person so doing. Fortunately we live in a democracy and we have just seen it at work. I wish the New Prime Minister the very best and hope that he will continue to govern this great country in a selfless way. If he does, I will be the first to congratulate him.

I think Latham did it!

Latham wrong footed Howard in 2004 and panicked him into running a strongly negative campaign which left Howard with the low interest rate baggage this time round. Howard was always a bit of a panicker, look at the dog of a Fairness Test!

Add to that the Senate majority and belief that they had a 2 term majority and arrogance set in. Downer gave some of the best born to rule / we will win impressions over the past year. Others like Vaile followed suit.

Workchoices was symbolic of how Howard moved to the right of the people and let Rudd position himself (economic conservative) in the centre right where Howard used to be. We want the old Howard the people said, Kevin said That's me!

Howard's worst decision was not to pull the pin in March 2006 and leave it to Costello. He would always have been a hero now he will have the mixed reception of a Fraser rather than the reverential Saint John of Bennelong glow he was looking for. The Libs should be dirty on him for his selfish turn, Costello as leader may have been able to sell "Go for Growth", he may still have lost but the message would have been clearer and the loss less damaging. It took them until the last week to get a message sorted out and a simple 9 point plan. Whoever was responsible for their campaign should be looking for a new line of work, politics is not for them!

The author says the unions tv ads were to blame. Don't be so dismissive, the ACTU campaign was well planned, well organised, well funded, well lead, and well.. successful. I recall after 2004 that the Fin Review bagged unions as politically irrelevant, Your Rights at Work proves that unions are back , baby!