Howard focuses on economy, terrorism and campaign pledges

6.45pm

Economic strength, the war on terrorism and making campaign promises a reality will dominate the political agenda in Australian prime minister John Howard's historic fourth term.

Mr Howard, who before Christmas will overtake Bob Hawke as Australia's second longest serving prime minister, today outlined his big picture plans, as well as his immediate timetable.

He will recall parliament on November 16, the first available date, for two or three weeks to start implementing policy promises such as enhanced private health insurance rebates for over 65s.

He will name his new ministry some time next week, after one or two doubtful seats are resolved.

"There will be some changes," he said, without indicating how sweeping they might be.

But he confirmed treasurer Peter Costello and foreign minister Alexander Downer would retain their portfolios, and indicated newcomers like Andrew Robb and Malcolm Turnbull would need to serve an apprenticeship, getting used to the workings of parliament.

Mr Howard is planning two key overseas trips in November - to an Apec meeting in Chile and an Asean summit in Laos.

He will use the opportunity of meeting Indonesia's first directly elected president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to press Australia's wish to keep the Bali bombers in jail.

Mr Howard does not expect United States president George W Bush to ask him to commit more troops to Iraq.

On the domestic front, the prime minister foreshadowed further industrial relations reforms, and indicated his "emphatic" mandate gave him the green light for long-standing policies such as the full sale of Telstra and new media ownership laws.

He said he remained "humbled" by his unexpected and second successive election gains, the first time a government has achieved this since the Menzies era.

But he promised: "We're not going to allow this enhanced position to go to our heads.

"That would be a big mistake and the Australian public would not appreciate it."

Mr Howard said the coalition would end up with at least 38 of the senate seats - exactly half - but had only a slim chance of winning an outright majority.

He gave some insight into his successful campaign tactics when he said he had rarely strayed from what he saw as the central issue - his government's record of credible economic stewardship.

Labour, on the other hand, had communicated a "very mixed message" to the electorate.

Mr Howard said the most sobering outcome for Labour was that its primary vote had remained virtually unchanged since the 1996 election, when Mr Howard defeated Paul Keating to begin his stint at The Lodge.

Mr Howard seemed to revel in his newfound status as a working-class hero.

He said Labour's forests policy for Tasmania, widely seen as costing Labour two of the island state's five lower house seats, had treated blue-collar workers with "contempt".

The prime minister could barely contain his glee when he referred to the coalition's win in Greenway, calling it a strike deep into the "Labour heartland" of western Sydney.

- AAP