Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has become the country’s first prime minister to win a second consecutive three-year term in 21 years.
“Thank you to the people of Australia for the chance to continue to serve the best nation on Earth,” Albanese told a jubilant crowd at a campaign party in Sydney.
He vowed to steer the nation through a rough patch of global uncertainty.
Photo: AFP
Opposition leader Peter Dutton conceded defeat in yesterday’s election, saying: “We didn’t do well enough during this campaign, that much is obvious tonight, and I accept full responsibility for that.”
“Earlier on, I called the prime minister to congratulate him on his success tonight. It’s an historic occasion for the Labor Party and we recognize that,” he added.
The Australian Electoral Commission’s projections at press time gave Albanese’s ruling center-left Labor Party 70 seats and the conservative opposition coalition 24 seats in the 150-seat Australian House of Representatives, the lower chamber where parties need a majority to form governments. Unaligned minor parties and independent candidates appeared likely to win 13 seats.
Australian Broadcasting Corp election analyst Antony Green predicted Labor would win 76 seats, the coalition 36 and unaligned lawmakers 13.
Labor would form a majority or minority government, and the coalition had no hope of forming even a minority government, Green said.
The election is taking place against a backdrop of what both sides of politics describe as a cost of living crisis.
It was also the first election in Australia in which Baby Boomers, born between born between the end of World War II and 1964, are outnumbered by younger voters. Both campaigns had promised policies to help first-home buyers buy into a property market that is too expensive for many.
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