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On Saturday 21 May around 17 million people in Australia will vote to award all seats in the House of Representatives (lower house) and just over half of the seats in the Senate (first seats open considering the time zone). on Italian Friday evening). This is the first general election since 2019 and is seen as particularly important for Australia’s future. While there doesn’t seem to be a clear favourite, it’s pretty certain that the next person to lead the Australian government will be a middle-aged white man: either current Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the centre-right Liberal Party, or Anthony Albanese , the centre-right leader of Labour, centre-left.
Currently, the Australian government is supported by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party of Australia, which is Conservative-leaning, while the main opposition party is Labor.
In Australia, the secretary of the party with the most votes automatically becomes prime minister: to form a majority government, a party must win at least 76 of the 151 available seats in the House of Representatives, or form a coalition, as has been the case with the government alliance since 2019. Today, the coalition has ended Liberal and National Party 76 seats, Labor Party 68. There are also a few independent candidates and four smaller parties, all with one seat, including The Greens and United Australia, a right-wing populist party.
In theory, general elections are held in Australia every three years, but lately it has often been the case that they are called before the end of the term. Morrison, who took over from then Prime Minister and party colleague Malcolm Turnbull in 2018 and was re-elected in the 2019 election, is the first Australian leader to reach the end of his term in office in the past 15 years (since 2007 to 2018 there were seven). prime ministers).
The latest opinion polls are forecasting a very narrow victory for Labor but it is very difficult to predict, also because the polls were badly off in the event of the 2019 election.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during an event in Melbourne on May 18 (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
Key points of discussion in the election campaign include economic and foreign policy, particularly regarding China’s influence in the Pacific Rim, but also Australia’s huge problems related to climate change, including the Great Summer Fires, the devastating floods in the east of the country and the looming threat Global warming on the Great Barrier Reef.
With a huge delay compared to most industrialized countries, Australia last October set itself the goal of achieving so-called “CO2 neutrality” by 2050: However, the government’s commitment was judged to be too vague and insufficient by climate researchers and industry experts, especially Australia is the fourth largest coal producer in the world and one of the most polluting countries in the world.
Then there’s another issue for the next Prime Minister to deal with: the major sexual harassment scandals involving key Australian officials and politicians that emerged in early 2021. The scandals have prompted thousands of women to demonstrate against gender violence and have created a sexist and male-chauvinist political environment with severe power imbalances.
A recent report found that more than half (51 per cent) of those currently serving in Parliament have experienced at least one episode of workplace bullying, harassment or sexual assault. 63 percent of parliamentarians also said they had been harassed, and 66 percent of those involved in the investigation (1,723 in total) spoke of repeated behavior over time rather than isolated incidents.
Morrison called the report’s findings “appalling” and apologized on behalf of the government and promised to review the report’s recommendations. However, the Liberals have been accused of failing to adequately manage the reports.
– Also read: “I don’t think I know”
The election campaign of the incumbent prime minister, who is 53, focused mainly on managing the coronavirus pandemic, which made it possible to contain the number of infections and deaths from causes related to COVID-19, and on the good results of the The country’s economy, which has returned to growth trajectory during the pandemic and is expected to grow again by 4.25 percent this year. However, in Australia, like the rest of the world, there are concerns about the rising costs of fuel, electricity and other essential goods; In addition, interest rates rose again for the first time in ten years.
However, consensus against Morrison appears to have sunk for a variety of reasons. The prime minister has been criticized for delays in launching the vaccination campaign and for the government’s tough anti-immigration policies, as well as for taking a family vacation to Hawaii during the devastating fires of 2019.
Some members of his own party have called him “a tyrant” and “an autocrat”, while Labor accused him of failing to adequately mann China’s potential military expansion in the Pacific. In this context, he angered France for being excluded from the anti-China military pact AUKUS (and for canceling the nuclear submarine supply agreement with the country).
In the event of a Labor victory, however, Albanese would become Australia’s first centre-left prime minister in nine years, since the end of Kevin Rudd’s mandate, which lasted just 83 days from June to September 2013.
The Albanian is 59 years old, he is a very experienced politician and was Deputy Prime Minister under Rudd’s government. Entering Parliament in 1996, he has since shifted to more centrist positions, campaigning on more modest goals aimed at gradually improving things, including on climate change. He is an advocate for public health and the rights of LGBT+ communities, and has more conciliatory positions than the Liberals on immigration management.
Among other things, Albanese said he wants to root out the macho culture in Parliament and announced he would support any proposals to raise the minimum wage to stem rising inflation, a measure Morrison believes puts too much strain on small businesses would . However, it has drawn some criticism from those who argue its programs are not ambitious enough.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese during an event in Canberra on May 18 (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)
In Australia, voting is compulsory for adults and registration is required to be able to vote: In these elections, which also award 40 of the 76 Senate seats, around 17.2 million Australians were registered, 96.3 percent of the approximately 25 .7 eligible voters million residents of the country.
The voter not only casts a vote, but must create their own “ranking list” of the candidates who present themselves on the ballot in their constituency. The system was created to reward not only the largest and most organized parties, which often end up at the top of preferences, but also the smallest, less “displeasing” to the voter: in perspective for the very system with which seats are allocated , it is much more convenient for a small party to be among the top positions with many voters than to be first with a few.
– Also read: The Sexual Abuse Report in the Australian Parliament