Politics
Anthony Albanese Re-Election 2025: PM Wins Amid Concerns Over American-Style Politics
The first Australian prime minister to win a second straight three-year term in 21 years is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
With the words, “We didn’t do well enough during this campaign, that much is obvious tonight, and I accept full responsibility for that,” opposition leader Peter Dutton acknowledged losing the election on Saturday.
“I congratulated the prime minister on his triumph tonight over the phone earlier. We acknowledge that this is a historic moment for the Labor Party,” he continued.
The 150-seat House of Representatives, the lower house where parties require a majority to form governments, saw Albanese’s ruling center-left Labor Party gain 70 seats and the conservative opposition alliance gain 24 seats, according to the Australian Electoral Commission’s forecasts. Independent candidates and unaffiliated small parties seemed to have a good chance of winning 13 seats.
Respected election analyst Antony Green of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. projected that Labor will win 76 seats, the coalition 36, and unaligned parliamentarians 13. Green claimed that the coalition has no chance of producing even a minority government and that Labor would either create a majority or a minority administration.
Both sides concur that the nation is experiencing a problem in the cost of living, and energy policy and inflation have been key campaign concerns.
Opposition leader branded ‘DOGE-y Dutton’
In an effort to cut government expenditure, Dutton’s conservative Liberal Party has promised to eliminate more than one in five public sector positions. The party also attributes rising interest rates and inflation on government waste.
Dutton contends that using more nuclear power rather than renewable energy sources like solar and wind turbines would result in cheaper electricity, even though both agree that the nation should achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The opposition leader has been called “DOGE-y Dutton” by the government center-left Labor Party, which also claims that his party is copying US President Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency.
Labor claims that in order to finance its nuclear aspirations, Dutton’s administration will cut services.
“We’ve seen the attempt to run American-style politics here of division and pitting Australians against each other and I think that’s not the Australian way,” Albanese stated.
Albanese added that since Labor took office in 2022, his government has improved ties with China, removing a number of formal and unofficial trade hurdles that had cost Australian exporters $20 billion ($13 billion) year.
A cost-of-living crisis as the country faces generational change
The election is being held in the midst of what both political parties refer to be a crisis in the cost of living.
Food insecurity affected 3.4 million homes in the 27 million-person nation last year, according to Foodbank Australia, the largest food aid organization in the country.
In other words, Australians were either eating less or missing meals because they were afraid of running out of food before they could afford to buy more.
In a hint that the worst of the financial difficulties had passed, the central bank lowered its benchmark cash interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point in February, to 4.1%. At the bank’s upcoming board meeting on May 20, it is generally anticipated that the rate would be lowered once again, this time to stimulate investment in the face of the global economic uncertainty brought on by Trump’s tariff measures.
The shifting demographics of Australia have been the main focus of both campaigns. This is Australia’s first election where younger voters outnumber Baby Boomers, who were born between the conclusion of World War II and 1964.
Both campaigns promised policies to help first-home buyers buy into a property market that is too expensive for many.
The election could produce a minority government
In the House of Representatives, which has 151 MPs, Labor had a slim majority of 78 seats before to the election. Due to redistributions, the next parliament will have 150 members.
Labor could have to try to create a minority administration with the help of members who are not aligned if it loses more than two seats.
Following the 2010 election, there was a minority administration; the previous one had been in place during World War II.
The last time no party had a majority, important independent members did not declare their support for a Labor government until 17 days after the votes concluded.