Final election results yesterday 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 privatize a telecom company and change media laws.
"The government now has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fully implement its mandate, which we will do in the interests of all Australians," the government's leader in the Senate, Robert Hill, said in a statement.
Howard won a landmark fourth term in the Oct. 9 election. His 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 yesterday 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 because his conservative coalition did not have a majority in the Senate.
The results announced yesterday made it likely Howard would succeed in his long-delayed plans to sell off the government's A$30 billion (US$22.4 billion) majority stake in telecommunications giant Telstra.
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