Australia's warhorse faces off with the young gun

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - The looming October 9 election will give Australians a real choice in style, substance and generation, pitting the Liberal warhorse John Howard against Labor's brash Mark Latham, 22 years his junior.

Howard goes to the polls as a known factor, a two-fisted campaigner who slugged his way through several knockout rounds to finally take leadership of his party.

Australians admire that sort of stamina, and over the years they have come to think of Howard as the kind of bloke you can trust (as much as you can trust any politician, anyway), and have flourished in a strong and stable economy protected by a tough stand on defence and border security.

They are also suspicious of change and not quick to embrace it.

On the other hand, Howard does face at least some voter fatigue and an increasing perception that far from being "Honest John" he has misled the country in some important areas.

And he is getting long in the tooth, even if he believes age doesn't matter.

Many Australians think he will retire if he wins a fourth term in October and becomes the nation's second-longest-serving Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies, handing the reins to Treasurer Peter Costello.

Yesterday Howard refused to silence that speculation by declining to commit to a full term, saying only that he would stay as long as his party wanted him: "If anybody imagines I've lost interest in this job, forget it."

Latham comes to the fight largely as an unknown, but with youth, zest, and a testosterone-packed history behind him, including some high-profile biffo.

Latham has never apologised for that - although he has curbed an x-rated tongue and startled the nation with weeping admissions of previous personal sins - and can probably rest assured that most Australians place this sort of stuff well below competence in the job.

The freshness of his face is good and bad. Good because he strides the political stage with vigour, energy, a great new line of rhetoric and no real baggage to weigh him down.

Latham can talk earnestly about the "ladder of opportunity" he wants to open for all Australians from early childhood up, about social equity and a new focus on health and education, and people can believe he not only means it, but will do his best to bring it about.

On the other hand, because he has no real political history there is very little on which to judge his abilities and competence, and Howard's jibes of inexperience can sheet home.

Latham is also considered by many to be volatile and to react instinctively rather than after reasoned thought - as he did with his promise to bring Australian troops home from Iraq by Christmas.