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This article considers a political blunder concerning Australia's Iraq policy on the part of opposition leader Mark Latham. With an election expected later this year, and the opposition Labor Party powerfully invigorated under Mark Latham, its latest leader, the prospects for John Howard winning a fourth term as prime minister have been looking a bit dim of late. Youthful and dynamic, and deftly able to steer the political agenda towards issues such as health and education, where Labor resonates strongly with voters, Mr Latham has opened up a commanding lead for the party over Mr Howard's conservative coalition since he took over the leadership just four months ago. Apparently emboldened by a sense that Australians wanted to put their military contribution to the war in Iraq behind them, Mr Latham said on March 23rd that, if Labor wins the election, he will bring the troops home by Christmas. There were echoes of the Spanish election on March 14th, soon after terrorist bombings in Madrid, and the pledge by Jos& eacute; Luis Rodr& iacute; guez Zapatero, the Spanish leader-elect, to withdraw Spain's troops from Iraq. Once Australia's responsibility was discharged after the handover to a sovereign authority in Iraq in July, he said, a Latham government would be hoping to have the troops back by Christmas: hardly revolutionary, given that Labor originally opposed the Howard government's despatch of troops to take part in the American-led invasion.

The article focuses on Mark Latham, leader of Australia's opposition Labor Party. Faced with an election by the end of 2004--and the prospect of Prime Minister John Howard winning a fourth term--Labor parliamentarians decided to ignore Mr Latham's colourful past and on December 2nd elected him to replace the lacklustre Simon Crean, whose public-approval ratings collapsed. Mr Latham is Labor's youngest leader in a century. Yet he also seems to be the party's best hope for overcoming the identity crisis that has plagued it since it lost power to Mr Howard's coalition almost eight years ago. Mr Latham is a champion of the market and individual enterprise and favours tax cuts for high earners. The job of government, he says, is "to help the people who are doing the right thing--the people who are getting stuck in, doing things the fair dinkum Australian way." He will push his ideas to make Australia an "upwardly mobile society", and boost health and education, where the Howard government is vulnerable. His biggest challenge will be to unite his party behind him before the election, whose timing is up to Mr Howard. The government coalition will try to exploit Mr Latham's inexperience and his inconsistencies on economic policy. But the new Labor leader is as formidable a communicator as Mr Howard, and every bit as adept at responding quickly to circumstances.

The article reports that Kim Beazley, who led Labor from 1996 to 2001, was left as the only candidate for the job after two rival contenders, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, announced their withdrawal. Both conceded they had been unable to muster sufficient support among their parliamentary colleagues to challenge Beazley. Barring any unforeseen problems, the path was cleared for Beazley to resume the Labor leadership at one of the lowest points in the party's 114-year history. Labor is still reeling from the shock of its fourth successive defeat last October by the conservative coalition government led by John Howard. On January 18th, a second shock followed when Mark Latham, who had led Labor for only 13 months, resigned as leader and from parliament. A tough year lies ahead. In July, the government will take control for the first time of the Senate, giving it what Beazley called "a position of absolutely unprecedented power".

Focuses on Mark Latham, leader of Australia's opposition Labor Party, who resigned abruptly on January 18th. View that Labor seems as far from regaining power as at any time since losing to the conservative coalition, led by John Howard, almost nine years ago; Latham's silence following the Indian Ocean tsunami and his announcement he was quitting the leadership and his parliamentary seat of Werriwa in Sydney; Observations on Latham's leadership; Possibility that the Labor Party may turn once again to Kim Beazley, a deputy prime minister in the last Labor government.

The article focuses on Mark Latham, who led Australia's opposition Labor Party to its fourth successive election defeat. As Latham faced the task of rebuilding Labor, no fewer than six of his senior parliamentary colleagues announced that they were no longer prepared to serve in his shadow cabinet. Some senior people, such as the shadow finance minister, Bob McMullan, withdrew to the parliamentary backbench after bitter arguments with Latham over the election loss. As Latham tried to assemble a new shadow cabinet, Labor's power struggles between its left and right factions erupted, at one point almost stripping him of authority. Finally, as John Howard, leader of the conservative coalition government was being sworn in for his fourth term as prime minister, Latham announced his new team. Most attention focused on Wayne Swan and Stephen Smith, both from the right, who will handle the crucial issues of economic policy and industrial relations. Latham has indicated that he will start by trying to recapture Labor's credentials on economic policy.

John Howard, Australia's prime minister, boasts that he set out to "rebalance" Australia's foreign policy when he came to power from what he saw as too much focus on Asia and not enough on Australia's most powerful ally, the United States. Having U.S. President George W. Bush, a like-minded conservative, as president helped. The two men are as close as any Australian and U.S. leaders have been. Both face elections later in 2004; both have been struggling in opinion polls. But even some of Howard's closest supporters raised an eyebrow when Bush launched a stinging public broadside against Mark Latham, leader of Australia's opposition Labor Party, over his plan to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq by the end of 2004. Howard accuses his opponent of "cutting and running", and insists Australian troops should stay in Iraq. With events turning sour in Iraq, Howard would probably have preferred to fight the election on other issues. But following Bush's intervention, he has signaled that he intends to try to turn Iraq to his favor by painting Latham as a threat to Australia's security under the U.S. alliance.