{"id":3776,"date":"2025-05-05T10:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3776"},"modified":"2025-05-05T10:27:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:27:23","slug":"australias-re-elected-prime-minister-says-voters-chose-unity-over-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3776","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s re-elected prime minister says voters chose unity over division"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Australia\u2019s re-elected<\/a> Prime Minister Anthony Albanese<\/a> on Sunday was greeted by well-wishers at a Sydney caf\u00e9 and said the country had voted for unity over division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albanese\u2019s center-left Labor Party won an emphatic victory in elections on Saturday. As vote counting continued, the government was on track to win at least 85 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, the lower chamber where parties need a majority to form an administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labor held 78 seats in the previous Parliament, and gaining seats in a second term is rare in Australian politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Australian people voted for unity rather than division,\u201d Albanese told reporters in the crowded caf\u00e9 in inner-suburban Leichhardt where he and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, gathered with colleagues and supporters for coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be a disciplined, orderly government in our second term, just like we have been in our first,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the government\u2019s top economic minister, explained the election result as voters seeking stability after U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> tariff disruptions to the global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was beyond even our most optimistic expectations,\u201d Chalmers told Australian Broadcasting Corp. of the election result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that this second term has been given to us by the Australian people because they want stability in uncertain times,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australian election result reminiscent of Canada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In an election result reminiscent of Canada\u2019s recent contest, conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton lost his parliamentary seat. His alliance of parties was reduced to 37 seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre,<\/a> lost his seat after Trump declared economic war on the U.S. neighbor. Poilievre had previously been regarded as a shoo-in to become Canada\u2019s next prime minister and shepherd his Conservative Party back into power for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Australian lawmakers say they feared late last year they would become the first government to be tossed out after a single three-year term since the turmoil of the Great Depression in 1931.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the center-left Canadian government, the Australian government had linked their political opponents to Trump\u2019s administration and its Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia was hit during the five-week election campaign with 10% tariffs on exports to the United States despite trading with its bilateral free trade partner at a deficit for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposition leader branded \u2018DOGE-y Dutton\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The opposition leader was branded \u201cDOGE-y Dutton,\u201d and Labor warned that a Dutton government would slash public sector services to pay for seven government-funded nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labor said Dutton never campaigned at any of the proposed power plant sites and argued the conservatives realized that nuclear reactors were not popular. There is no nuclear power generation in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labor also accused Dutton of igniting culture wars. While Albanese stands before the Australian flag and two Indigenous flags at media announcements, Dutton had said that as prime minister, he would only stand in front of the national flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indigenous Australians account for 4% of the population and are the nation\u2019s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chalmers said the direct impacts of U.S. tariffs on Australia were \u201cmanageable and relatively modest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut there is a huge downside risk in the global economy. I think what\u2019s happening, particularly between the U.S. and China, does cast a dark shadow over the global economy. And we\u2019re not uniquely impacted by that. But we\u2019re really well-placed. We are quite well-prepared,\u201d Chalmers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albanese has become the first Australian prime minister to lead a party to consecutive election victories since conservative John Howard in 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revolving door for Australian political leaders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Howard\u2019s 11-year reign ended at the next election in 2007. Like Dutton, Howard also lost his seat in Parliament as well as his government. Howard\u2019s departure coincided with the start of an extraordinary period of political instability that created a revolving door for political leaders. There have been six prime ministers since Howard, including one who served in the role twice in separate stints three years apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albanese said the first world leader to congratulate him on his election victory was Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape<\/a>, who phoned at 7:45 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very good friend,\u201d Albanese said. \u201cI told him it\u2019s a bit early to call.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albanese had also spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon<\/a> and received text messages of congratulation from British Prime Minister Kier Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Albanese said he would speak to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto<\/a> and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> later Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Australia\u2019s re-elected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3778,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions\/3778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}