THE AUSTRALIAN Labor Party, humiliated in a federal election two weeks ago, has chosen a new leader, writes Angela Long. Gone is the enjoyable asperity of Mr Paul Keating, and arriving is the decidedly gentler style of Mr Kim Beazley.
Mr Beazley (47), an avuncular figure from Western Australia, was deputy prime minister and treasurer (finance minister) in the government which fell with a resounding crash on March 2nd.
He was elected unopposed at a meeting of the Australian parliamentary Labor party in Canberra. Mr Keating (52), who has lent a touch of aural colour to the political scene for 27 years, did not contest the leadership and is expected to quit politics altogether.
Mr Beazey pledged to rebuild the party and to regain power at the next election, due in three years. "We got to the position we are in now in one election, we get back in one election," he said.
The Labor party, which had governed Australia for 13 years suffered a swing against it of unforeseen magnitude. With some final counts still taking place, it appears to have ceded a lower house majority of 40 seats to its opposition foe now in power, the Liberal National Party coalition headed by Mr John Howard.
Mr Beazley, who kept his own seat by a mere handful of votes, said Labor had to learn again to listen to the people and be more responsive to the community.
"You can't take a defeat like ours and simply assume everything is okay in the cupboard," he said. "My task will be to go back to the grass roots of the party and listen to the views of ordinary Australians."
The former foreign minister, Mr Gareth Evans, defeated former employment minister, Mr Simon Crean, to become deputy leader.