Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party has won the federal election, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, head of the conservative Liberal Party, conceded defeat after early counting on Saturday night showed his party would lose, and called Mr Albanese to congratulate him on the win.
Mr Dutton, a former cabinet minister and police officer, also lost his seat of Dickson in Brisbane to the Labor candidate. He had held the seat for 24 years.
The Liberal Party leader said he accepts “full responsibility” for his party’s loss and “tonight is not the night” he wanted, adding: “We didn’t do well enough during this campaign.”
Mr Albanese is the first Australian prime minister to win a second consecutive three-year term in 21 years.
Addressing supporters in Sydney, Mr Albanese said serving as PM is the “greatest honour of my life”.
“And it is with a deep sense of humility and a profound sense of responsibility that the first thing that I do tonight is to say thank you to the people of Australia,” he added.
Cost-of-living pressures and concerns about US President Donald Trump’s volatile policies had dominated the election campaign.
Labor had branded the opposition leader “Doge-y Dutton” and accused his party of mimicking Mr Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
Mr Albanese’s party had argued that under Mr Dutton, services would be slashed to pay for his party’s nuclear ambitions.
“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,” Mr Albanese said.
Supports of Anthony Albanese hugged at a Labor Party election night event after ABC called the result. Pic: Reuters
Mr Dutton’s party blamed government waste by Labor for fuelling inflation and increasing interest rates.
He had pledged to axe more than one in five public service jobs to reduce government spending.
Mr Dutton had said he wanted to become the first political leader to oust a first-term government since 1931, when Australians were reeling from the Great Depression.
However, that dream was quashed as the electorate sided with the Labor Party.
Both parties had agreed Australia should reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, but Mr Dutton said the country should rely on more nuclear power instead of renewable energy sources would deliver less expensive electricity.
Staff counting ballots in Brisbane. Pic: Reuters
The two campaigns also both focused on Australia’s changing demographics, with the election being the first in which Baby Boomers, born between the end of the Second World War and 1964, are outnumbered by younger voters.
Both parties had promised policies to help first-time buyers in a property market out of reach for many.
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