Anthony Albanese is set to become Australia’s next prime minister, after voters delivered a stinging rebuke of the ruling conservative government on May 21.
More than 17 million voters went to the polls on Saturday in an election that will see Albanese, the leader of the center-left Labor Party, unseat incumbent prime minister Scott Morrison, of the center-right Liberal Party.
Some voters have accused Morrison, who has been the prime minister since 2018, of lacking leadership. He faced backlash for taking a holiday in Hawaii in Dec. 2019, during the most devastating bushfires to hit the country in decades.
Although the economy and the cost of living were at the center of the campaign, it appears climate change was at the top of voters’ minds. Morrison has faced criticism for a lack of action on climate change–pumping tens of millions of dollars into a “gas-led” recovery from the pandemic. Albanese’s labor government has promised tougher emission reduction targets; the election also saw a major swing towards independent candidates that support climate action, and it offered a boost for the Greens Party.
Morrison admitted during the campaign that he was a “bit of a bulldozer” and he promised to listen to Australians if he was re-elected, but his appeals didn’t work. He delivered a concession speech late on Saturday night. It appears that several other high profile Liberal Party members of parliament, like the treasurer Josh Frydenberg, will also lose their seats....
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