After three months in power, how has Kevin Rudd changed Australia?

Rudd is Australia's most popular prime minister for 20 years

Seventy per cent of voters declared themselves satisfied with his performance – the highest approval rating for a national leader

There is a new mood in the country, a sense of rebirth and regeneration

After living through 11 years of conservative rule under Mr Rudd's predecessor, John Howard, many people say that Australia feels like a fundamentally different place

Howard's policies made them ashamed of their nationality

Now, for the first time in years, they feel proud to be Australian

signed the Kyoto Protocol

Rudd apologised to the "Stolen Generations" – Aboriginal people forcibly separated from their families as children

Rudd has abolished policies that earned Australia international condemnation

historical significance of the apology to Aborginal people cannot be underestimated

A sense of fair play and decency, which was absent during the Howard years, has returned