You knew “Scomo”, now here is “Albo”. Labor leader Anthony Albanese did not hide his emotion on Saturday night as he announced his victory. He spoke of his humble origins, the son of an Italian immigrant he didn’t know who was raised by a single mother in a low-income housing project in a working-class suburb of Sydney. And wished that his own journey would “inspire Australians to conquer the moon”.
Coming from the left wing of the Labor Party, MP for Sydney District where he grew up for 26 years, he spent most of his career in the opposition and even declared that he liked “fighting the Conservatives”. However, he was Minister for Infrastructure and Transport in the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard governments for six years, and also briefly served as Deputy Prime Minister in 2013 before Labor was removed from power by the Conservative coalition.
Paris is happy
The latter suffered a clear defeat on Saturday evening and lost ground, especially in the big cities. From Sydney to Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne, voters in traditionally favored constituencies chose to punish them for their inaction on the climate crisis by voting for the Greens and Independents, who have made protecting the environment their priority.
Abroad, the current ex-Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian was the first to greet him. By leaving his diplomatic reserve at Saturday’s handover ceremony. “Prime Minister Morrison’s defeat suits me very well. Because the measures have been taken in relation to France […] brutal, cynical and, I would even be tempted to say, notoriously incompetent,” the former boss of the Quai d’Orsay let loose, referring to Canberra’s violation of September’s “Treaty of the Century” to acquire 12 conventional submarines, the to be supplied by the Naval Group.
no revolution
In this regard, it is not certain that Australia’s 31st PM will offer any consolation to France, given that Labor has fully backed the Aukus pact struck with Washington and London, as well as the decision to buy nuclear submarines.
Based on the statements made during the campaign, we should not expect a revolution in Canberra. Labour, which has moved heavily towards the center in recent years, supports housing asylum seekers in offshore camps, they opened the first in 2013; You too, who raised the retirement age to 67 in 2009. Its climate policy is certainly more ambitious than that of the previous government, but according to many experts it remains largely inadequate in a country that is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases per capita on earth.
Furthermore, it is not certain at this stage whether Labor will achieve an outright majority in Parliament. A situation that would lead them to ally themselves with the Greens and Independents, who made a real breakthrough in this election. To win their support, Labor must distort and green its programme. In truth, they have a keen interest in it, because their victory is less the result of a membership vote than a sanctions vote against the Liberal party. In addition, the Labor Party lost votes compared to the last election in 2019, but significantly less than the Liberals. While the Greens and the Independents won.