Howard wins full majority

2004-10-29 08:11

Canberra - Final election results on Thursday showed John Howard becoming Australia's first prime minister in 24 years to control both houses of parliament, clearing the way for his long-sought reforms to privatise a telecom company and change media laws.

Howard said he would not abuse the new power.

"I want to assure the Australian people that the government will use its majority in the Senate very carefully, very wisely and not provocatively," Howard told reporters in Sydney.

He added, "We intend to do the things we've promised the Australian people we would do but we don't intend to allow this unexpected but welcome majority in the Senate to go to our heads."

Howard won a landmark fourth term in the October 9 election, seen abroad as a referendum on his unpopular decision to join the United States-led coalition in Iraq but waged domestically in a campaign focusing on the economy.

Howard's coalition wins majority

Howard's coalition won a majority in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, in results made clear late on election day. But results for the Senate took until Thursday to calculate because of a proportional voting system that is more complex than the lower house voting regime.

Key priorities of Howard were blocked during his first three terms in office because his conservative coalition government did not have a majority in parliament's upper chamber, the Senate.

The results announced on Thursday made it likely Howard would succeed in his long-delayed plans to sell off a majority stake in the government's 30 billion Australian dollar ($22.4bn) majority stake in the national telecommunications giant Telstra.

Opposition lawmakers have long resisted the sale, arguing it would lead to deterioration in services, particularly in the remote Outback, where line maintenance is expensive.

Liberal Party

Howard's deputy in the ruling Liberal Party, Peter Costello, said he supports the Telstra sale as long as standards of service do not drop in remote communities.

"Unless somebody has a plan to re-nationalise Telstra, which they don't, the best thing is for Telstra to be like other telecommunication companies in other countries, with investors and with legislative requirement for improved services," Costello said.

The Senate majority also means that the chamber will no longer be an obstacle in moves to loosen restrictions on foreign ownership of Australian media and cross-media ownership laws that prevent someone from owning a newspaper and television station in the same state.

Opposition parties fear relaxation of the laws will reduce diversity in the media.

Costello said the government also would push other legislation that the Senate rejected during the government's first three terms, including deregulating the labour market and reducing constraints on small businesses that want to fire staff.

- AP