Abbott Triumph Now Time To Deliver. If Tony Abbott puts his stamp on the nation he faces the very real prospect of governing for at least two terms. Tony Abbott has been given an emphatic mandate to put his stamp on the nation and - if he delivers on promise of "grown-up government" - the very real prospect of governing for at least two terms. This is a personal triumph for Abbott and the Coalition but, to a much greater extent, it represents a brutal and comprehensive repudiation of Labor and its inability to govern itself. Voters have cast aside their reservations about Abbott in order to deliver a verdict on Labor's three-year leadership soap opera, the ascendancy of spin over substance and the preference for campaigning rather than governing. We know what Abbott plans to stop - the boats, the taxes, the waste - but we have only a vague idea of what he wants to start, aside from the world's most generous parental leave scheme. The promise of "no surprises, no excuses" government is assurance enough. The Rudd experiment has failed and failed comprehensively - and Labor now faces the colossal challenge of rebuilding and redefining and reconnecting, most likely under the leadership of Bill Shorten. Rudd insists he is not into "what-ifs," but he and his party must surely reflect on the squandered opportunity of the past six years, and wonder how a talented government that pursued and implemented some landmark policies could succumb to collective insanity and division. The danger is that the defeat will trigger another round of recriminations and introspection. It will be minimised if Rudd announces his intention to leave politics. A large slab of the horsepower went when Rudd returned to the prime ministership just 75 days ago - Julia Gillard, Greg Combet, Craig Emerson, Peter Garrett, Simon Crean and Stephen Smith among them. Now, the voters have completed the cleanout. The only consolation of a defeat of the magnitude that Paul Keating suffered in 1996 is that Labor was able to regroup then under the inclusive leadership of Kim Beazley and be very competitive in 1998. The task is much, much harder this time because of what has occurred in the past three years. Having so comprehensively recaptured the middle ground, Abbott now has three powerful advantages as he begins his prime ministership: the immense authority that flows from discipline and leadership he has displayed for nearly four years; a clear ascendancy in the house; and the lessons he has learnt from being an intimate player in politics at the highest levels for two decades. His immediate challenges will be to deliver on the key promises - to stop the boats and scrap the carbon and mining taxes. Whether the Senate accepts his mandate is not yet clear. He will also have to manage a greatly expanded party room that will include many with strong claims to ministries, and deal with the deep reservations that many on his own side have about his paid parental leave scheme. But given the journey Abbott has completed since being elected party leader in December 2009 with a one-vote majority, these are challenges he is well equipped to meet.