Australia’s opposition is set to anoint Anthony Albanese as its new leader, hoping to win back the working class after a shock election defeat to the conservative government.
The Australian Labor Party unexpectedly lost to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morris on May 18, despite leading in the polls running up to the election. Albanese, from Labor’s left faction, replaced Bill Shorten, when the former union chief stepped down hours after losing the vote.
The 56-year-old is to be officially confirmed by the Labor caucus on Thursday after the uncontested leadership ballot.
Photo: AP
Albanese vowed to create a “larger, more inclusive party” amid soul-searching within the ranks over the defeat.
“I understand that it is a big mountain that we have to climb,” Albanese yesterday told reporters in Sydney, where he holds his lower house seat.
“I want to build relationships between the Labor Party and those people who voted for us, but also those people who wanted to vote for us, who were open to vote for us, but who felt like they couldn’t,” he said.
Labor’s large and progressive policy reform agenda, which it campaigned heavily on, as well as Shorten’s unpopularity with voters, have been blamed for the election upset.
Morrison successfully cast Labor’s proposals, including tackling climate change, as too risky and damaging to household finances at a time when the national economy is slowing down.
The Labor party performed particularly poorly in Queensland state, where Shorten was perceived to be lukewarm about a potential large India-backed mine that promises to create thousands of jobs.
However, Albanese argued it was possible to grow the economy and create jobs while still pursuing a progressive agenda.
“The economy must work for people, not the other way around. I view unions and business as having common interests,” he said.
However, “we can’t judge the economy separate from the people it’s meant to serve. I believe in an inclusive society, one that looks after the most vulnerable,” he said.
Albanese was raised by a single mother in public housing in Sydney and has previously touted his roots as helping him connect with lower-income voters, who deserted Labor in droves at the last election.
An economics graduate, he was first elected to parliament in 1996 and has been on Labor’s frontbench since 1998.
Albanese briefly served as deputy prime minister under former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2013, and was also infrastructure, transport and regional development minister.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not