From news.com.au staff and wires 11nov01

LONG-SERVING Labor senator Chris Schacht has blamed internal feuding for his party's defeat, after Prime Minister John Howard claimed a third term in government last night.

Senator Schacht was dumped to an unwinnable third place on the Senate ticket for refusing to join a dominant ALP faction in South Australia.

Today, he said Labor needed to get back in touch with the community and accused his branch of being more interested in faction fighting and branch stacking than in building a strong party.

"I'm bitter about losing the election," he told ABC radio. "I'm bitter about the fact that I spent 30 years in the Labor Party in South Australia coming from where we built the party up that we were one of the jewels in the Labor crown nationally. It just means we really have to get serious in the ALP about how we connect with the community to get ourselves back as a mainstream party. The party organisation is in a terrible state. It is more interested in faction fighting and branch stacking than it is about getting out and building a broad-based Labor Party that is connected to the community."

Labor deputy leader Simon Crean will be left to re-build the ALP if he is elected to replace Kim Beazley, who resigned as leader last night.

"I think Simon Crean is a dead set certainty to lead the Labor Party," ALP heavyweight Graham Richardson told Channel 9.

Last night, John Howard received a rapturous welcome from the party faithful just moments after Kim Beazley conceded defeat. "What a wonderful result this is," he told them. Not only have we won for a third time, but this is the greatest two-party preferred swing to an incumbent government since 1966." The Prime Minister thanked his party, his parliamentary team, his staff and his wife Janette, daughter Melanie and sons Richard and Tim. "There is no greater honour that can be conferred upon anybody than the honour of being Prime Minister of this magnificent country," he said. "I commit myself and my being and all of the energy and all of the capacity I have to the service of my fellow Australians from this night onwards," he said.

Mr Howard said Australia faced some new and unexpected challenges.

"It requires of all of us of goodwill and of faith in freedom and a belief in the great principles upon which this nation has been built that we come together, we bind together in unity."

Earlier Mr Beazley conceded defeat and said he would quit as leader of the Labor party..

He said Labor had "fought a magnificent campaign in adverse circumstances". But he told supporters: "We have lost this election."

He congratulated Prime Minister John Howard, then said he intended to "bow out".. "It is not my intention to remain as leader of the Labor Party," he said.

Addressing Labor Party faithful in his Perth electorate of Brand, Mr Beazley thanked his colleagues and supporters. "I have to tonight, I'm afraid for all of you, I have to concede defeat," he said. "There is no doubt about that and I congratulate Mr Howard on his re-election. "I hope, as prime minister of this country for some time, that he has and does bear in mind the concerns and needs of all Australians."

Mr Beazley said he was proud of the Labor Party and its performance at the election. "I am that proud of the Australian Labor Party ... we have fought a magnificent campaign in adverse circumstances and we have held onto a position which I could not believe we would five weeks ago," he said.

Backed by a nationwide two per cent swing, Mr Howard is expected to increase his majority to 10 seats in the House of Representatives. His strong electoral support made it impossible for the ALP to pick up the seven seats it needed to claim victory.

Overall, the ALP was well placed to pick up only four coalition seats. But the Liberals offset the losses by picking up at least five Labor seats, including the Queensland seat of Dickson, held by high-profile frontbencher Cheryl Kernot