Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won a second term, defeating the conservative Liberal party candidate Peter Dutton in a landslide victory and becoming the first Labor leader to win a second term in over a decade. Albanese will start his second term with 87 out of the 150 seats in the lower house of Parliament.
“In this time of global uncertainty Australians have chosen optimism and determination,” Albanese said in his victory speech. According to polls, Peter Dutton and the (politically conservative) Liberal party were still favorites to win as recently as February, only for opinion to turn sharply against them as the election drew near. “We didn’t do well enough during this campaign, that much is obvious tonight and I accept full responsibility for that,” Dutton told supporters once the results were in. “It’s an historic occasion for the labor party and we recognize that.” Dutton also lost his parliament seat in Dixon, Queensland, which also went to a labor candidate in the same election.
This is the second conservative electoral defeat in a nation closely allied with the United States since Trump took office. In Canada, former Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who just months ago was seen as the preferred candidate for the next prime minister, also lost the seat he held in Parliament for 20 years to a Liberal candidate in the federal elections held on April 28th. Centrist Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal party enjoyed an overall victory in that election as well, which was also viewed as a rebuke to Trump’s trade war and his threats to the country’s sovereignty. Anthony Albanese and the Labor party were similarly rewarded for having taken a stand against Trump’s heavy-handed 10% tariffs across the board on the American ally, which he eventually paused.
