Labor’s Anthony Albanese has defied the so-called “incumbency curse” to be re-elected Australia’s prime minister in a landslide.
Official vote counting won’t finish for days, but Albanese’s centre-left government will dramatically increase its majority after the conservative Liberal-National coalition suffered a thumping defeat nationwide.
“Today, the Australian people have voted for Australian values: for fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all; for the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need,” Albanese said.
Coalition leader Peter Dutton, who lost his own seat of 24 years, said he accepted “full responsibility” for his party’s loss and apologised to his MPs.
Following the result, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio both said they looked forward to deepening their bilateral relationships with Australia.
Cost-of-living concerns – particularly the affordability of healthcare and housing – dominated the five-week campaign, but international relations also reared its head, with the issue of how to deal with Donald Trump looming large over the election.
Dutton was seen by many as Australia’s Trump, which appeared to go down badly with voters, despite his attempts to shake off comparisons made between his policies on immigration, public sector cuts and China, and the Trump administration.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told BBC Newshour that Dutton ran a “very Trumpian campaign”, and the US president was “the mood music that had a very big influence on how people perceived” the Liberal-National opposition.
Labor saw swings towards them right across the country – a rare feat for a second-term government in Australia – and Albanese became the first prime minister to win back-to-back elections in over 20 years.
The party’s success has also tempered a trend of voters abandoning the two major parties, which was the big story of the last election in 2022.
Labor is on track to finish with 86 seats, the Coalition about 40, and the Greens Party with one or two, according to projections by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Other minor parties and independents are ahead in nine seats.
That represents an increase of nine for Labor and a significant drop in support for the Greens. However most “teal” independents have been returned in their more conservative, inner-city electorates.
It’s a remarkable turnaround from the start of the year, when polling put Albanese’s popularity at record lows after three years of global economic pain, tense national debate, and growing government dissatisfaction.
