Australia Elections Seen Moving Toward Ruling Labor
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
CANBERRA (Worthy News) – Australians voted Saturday in a national election that polls show will likely favor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party over the conservative opposition amid worries about U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s policies such as imposing tariffs on goods.
Labor has tried to cast opposition leader Peter Dutton, who has pledged to sharply reduce immigration and cut thousands of public service jobs, as a Trump-lite conservative endangering the nation’s future.
Dutton had led in opinion polls as recently as February but fell behind Labor after the U.S. placed tariffs on Australia.
The Labor strategy seemed to work, with the first noticeable cheers coming from the Labor watch party after an apparently early swing towards Labor in Peter Dutton’s parliamentary seat of Dickson in Queensland state.
Yet Dutton sought to distance himself from comparisons with Trump adviser Elon Musk’s agency-cutting fervor.
Australia is a close U.S. security ally and generally runs a trade deficit with the United States.
However, it was not spared Trump’s tariffs, with a 10 percent duty imposed on Australian exports.
YOUNG VOTERS
Young voters are playing a crucial role in the race between Prime Minister Albanese of the Australian Labor Party, seeking a second term, and opposition leader Peter Dutton of the Liberal-National Coalition.
Besides how to tackle Trump’s perceived unpredictable presidency, the cost of living, crumbling public healthcare, and unaffordable housing topped the agenda of Australia’s federal election.
Also on the ballot are a range of independents and candidates from the left-wing Greens, who could become kingmakers in case of a hung parliament.
In what will be the 48th Parliament of Australia, all 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate are contested.
Polling booths in Australia – among the few democracies with mandatory voting – opened at 8 a.m. local time, although a record 8 million out of 18 million eligible voters had already cast ballots before Saturday.
Polls were to close at 6 p.m. local time, depending on time zones.
ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Official results can take days or even weeks, but unofficial early results from the electoral commission were used to indicate who would form the next government.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) election analyst Antony Green already said that it’s “hard to see” the opposition Coalition winning.
“It is hard to see them winning, I must say that, whether this is going to translate into Labor having a win or big win, it is going to take a lot more to go,” he said.
Green suggested there’s been a swing toward Labor rather than the Coalition.
However, Peter Dutton stressed that he believed in “miracles” and was hopeful that “quiet Australians” would vote for him.
The first results and polls indicated that it did not happen on Saturday.
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