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.
The first Australian prime minister to win a second consecutive 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 accomplishment tonight over the phone earlier. We acknowledge that this is a historic moment for the Labour Party,” he continued.
The conservative opposition alliance received 24 seats and Albanese’s ruling center-left Labour Party 70 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, the lower house where parties require a majority to form governments, according to the Australian Electoral Commission’s estimates.
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 Labour will win 76 seats, the coalition 36, and unaligned parliamentarians 13. Green claimed that the coalition had no chance of producing even a minority government and that Labour would either form a majority or a minority government.
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.
The leader of the opposition called Dutton “DOGE-y.” Dutton’s conservative Liberal Party has promised to eliminate more than one in five public service positions in order to cut government spending, and it attributes rising interest rates and inflation to 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 Labour Party, which also claims that his party is imitating US President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Labor claims that in order to finance its nuclear aspirations, Dutton’s administration would cut services.
“I think that’s not the Australian way,” Albanese stated, referring to the attempt to conduct American-style politics here that divide and set Australians against one another.
Albanese added that since Labour took office in 2022, his government has strengthened ties with China, removing a number of official and informal trade restrictions that have cost Australian exporters $20 billion (USD 13 billion) annually.
A crisis in living expenses as the nation transitions to a new generation The election is being held in the midst of what both political parties refer to as a crisis in the cost of living.
According to Foodbank Australia, the biggest food assistance organization in the country, 3.4 million of the 27 million households there were food insecure in the previous year.
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.
The central bank lowered its benchmark cash interest rate by a quarter percentage point in February to 4.1%, signaling that the worst of the financial hardship was over.
It is anticipated that the rate will be lowered once more at the bank’s upcoming board meeting on May 20 in order to stimulate investment in the face of the global economic uncertainty brought on by Trump’s tariff policies.
Both campaigns have highlighted Australia’s shifting demographics, with younger voters outnumbering Baby Boomers, who were born between the end of World War II and 1964, and both have pledged measures to assist first-time homebuyers in accessing an extremely expensive real estate market.
