Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd swept to power in Australian elections on Saturday, ending an 11-year conservative era and promising major changes to policies on global warming and his country’s role in the Iraq war.

“Today Australia has looked to the future,” Rudd said in a nationally televised victory speech, to wild cheers from supporters. “Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward... to embrace the future, together to write a new page in our nation’s history.” The win marked a humiliating end to the career of outgoing Prime Minister John Howard, who became Australia’s second-longest serving leader — and who had appeared almost unassailable as little as a year ago.

In a nationally televised concession speech, Howard announced he had phoned Rudd to congratulate him on “a very emphatic victory.”

“I accept full responsibility for the Liberal Party campaign, and I therefore accept full responsibility for the coalition’s defeat in this election campaign,” Howard said.

Howard also admitted he was likely to lose his seat in Parliament, becoming only the second sitting prime minister in 106 years of federal government to do so.

Official figures from the Australian Electoral Commission showed Labour well ahead with more than 70 per cent of the ballots counted. An Australian Broadcasting Corp analysis showed that Labour would get at least 81 places in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament — a clear majority.

Rudd was expected to formally claim victory later on Saturday.

The change in government from Howard’s centre-right Liberal-National Party coalition to the centre-left Labour Party also marks a generational shift for Australia.

Rudd, a 50-year-old former diplomat who speaks fluent Chinese, urged voters to support him because Howard was out of touch with modern Australia and ill-equipped to deal with new-age issues such as climate change.