Aussies vote for ‘people’s PM’

Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has been described as an antipodean version of Tony Blair - an untraditional Labour leader with an unwavering conviction in both God and his personal vision to take his country forward. Like Blair, the 50-year-old has swept to power after only a comparatively short time at the helm of his party.
 
Early in the election campaign Rudd's chances didn't look good. He became a YouTube sensation when he was filmed apparently picking wax from his ear and eating it during a parliamentary debate. This came on top of Rudd's confession that he had once visited a lap dancing club in New York but had been too drunk to recall what had happened.
 
However in a country renowned for its beer and sports culture, this only endeared him to voters who decided he wasn't just another boring Canberra technocrat – even if his biographer, Nicholas Stuart, described him as a spider sitting in the middle of a web of power, and a "micro- manager".
 
Meanwhile a British-born woman is having the last laugh on her critics after being named Australia's first female deputy prime minister. Julia Gillard's parents left Wales on the "Ten Pound Pom" scheme in the Sixties. During the election campaign, a government senator described her as "deliberately barren" because she had decided not to have children. Gillard, a former lawyer, said she was used to sexist comments from dinosaur politicians. ·