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The Australian federal election on 24 November 2007 ended more than a decade of dominance of the centre-right Coalition government of John Howard. Despite his long reign, Howard leaves surprisingly little legacy in terms of fundamental changes, indeed, the main policy changes were already laid down by the Labor governments in the 1980s and early 1990s. Apart from general discontent with the long serving government, the environment, the close alliance with the US and opposition to work-place legislation led to the Coalitions defeat in an election, in which even the PM lost his seat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]