AMN / WEB DESK
AUSTRALIA labour Party was set to end almost a decade of conservative rule as the government was swept away in Saturday’s election by a wave of support for candidates who campaigned for more action on climate change and may hold the balance of power.
Newly elected Labour Party leader Anthony Albanese will be sworn in as Prime Minister tomorrow. Outgoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was heading Liberal-National coalition, conceded defeat and thanked the Australian people.
Counting of Votes is still going on, and it is unclear whether Labor Party can get 76 seats to secure a majority in the 151-member lower house of parliament. If the election results in a hung parliament, Greens and independents could wield greater influence in framing the new government’s policies on the issue.
Mr Albanese, who will be heading Australia’s first Labor government in almost a decade, has vowed to take the country in a new direction, with a big shift in climate policy. Climate change has been a key concern for voters, after three years of record-breaking bushfires and flood events.
Australia’s Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese is a politician molded by his humble start to life as the only child of a single mother who raised him on a pension in gritty inner-Sydney suburbia.
Albanese has promised to rehabilitate Australia’s international reputation as a climate change laggard with steeper cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. The previous administration had stuck with the same commitment it made at the Paris Agreement in 2015: 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030. Albanese’s Labor Party has promised a 43% reduction.
His financially precarious upbringing in government-owned housing in suburban Camperdown fundamentally formed the politician who has led the center-left Australian Labor Party into government for the first time since 2007. He is still widely known by his childhood nickname, Albo.
“It says a lot about our great country that a son of a single mom who was a disability pensioner, who grew up in public housing down the road in Camperdown can stand before you tonight as Australia’s prime minister,” Albanese said in his election victory speech on Saturday.
“Every parent wants more for the next generation than they had. My mother dreamt of a better life for me. And I hope that my journey in life inspires Australians to reach for the stars,” he added.
Albanese repeatedly referred during the six-week election campaign to the life lessons he learned from his disadvantaged childhood. Labor’s campaign focused on policies including financial assistance for first home buyers grappling with soaring real estate prices and sluggish wage growth.
Labor also promised cheaper child care for working parents and better nursing home care for the elderly.