“It has been an immense privilege every day of my life over the last eleven and a half years to have been prime minister of this beautiful country and I want to thank the Australian people for the privilege they have given me over that period of time.”

My fellow Australians, a few moments ago I telephoned Mr Kevin Rudd and I congratulated him and the Australian Labor Party on a very emphatic victory.

We bequeath to him a nation that is stronger and prouder and more prosperous than it was 11 1/2 years ago.

It has been an immense privilege every day of my life over the last 11 1/2 years to have been prime minister of this beautiful country and I want to thank the Australian people for the privilege they have given me over that period of time. I respect it and I honour it and it is something that has been the most unbelievable experience.

I've led a government that has taken this country from deep debt to strong prosperity. I've led a government that has never shirked the difficult decisions. I've led a government that has reformed the Australian economy and left it the envy of the world.

I want to thank all of my parliamentary colleagues for their loyalty and their dedication over these long years in government.

I want particularly to thank (Nationals leader) Mark Vaile and his two predecessor John Anderson and Tim Fischer.

To my own deputy and treasurer Peter Costello I owe a very special debt of gratitude. He's been a wonderful steward of the Australian economy and the future of our party is very much tied up with Peter Costello. He is very much our future.

I want to say to those of my colleagues who have fallen in electoral battle today: I thank them, I grieve for some of those young members who've been in parliament for only a short period of time, some of those wonderful people who won in 2004 and also for some of my ministers who've done such a wonderful job.

I particularly grieve the loss of Mal Brough who led the intervention in the Northern Territory.

I hope that the new government of this country maintains that intervention because it is very important to the long-term benefit of the first Australians.

I accept full responsibility for the Liberal Party campaign and I therefore accept full responsibility for the Coalition's defeat in this election campaign.

The Liberal Party of course will need to choose a new leader and I've indicated very clearly from my earlier remarks who I believe it should be. I believe the future of our party does lie very much with Peter Costello and others who will come in behind him.

I owe everything that I have achieved in these recent years to a wonderful strong family and Janette has been the cement, Janette has been there all the time and she's had to put up with a lot.

Although it is still officially in doubt, it is very likely to be the case that I will no longer be the member for Bennelong. But whatever ultimately is the situation, I do want to thank the people of Bennelong who have done me the honour of electing me to represent them in the national parliament for some 33 years. And I do want to thank them very warmly.

Naturally I'm saddened by the defeat of the Coalition tonight but I count myself very fortunate to have been the beneficiary of the support of the people of Australia for so long.

I thank them, I wish this nation well, I believe very profoundly that Australia's best years lie ahead of her.

I wish the government elected by the people today the very best of good fortune in the years ahead, thank you.

View John Howard's 2007 Federal Election night speech — Part 1, Part 2