MELBOURNE: Anthony Albanese claimed victory as the first Australian prime minister to clinch a second consecutive three-year term in 21 years on Saturday and suggested his government had increased its majority in the next Parliament by not modelling itself on US President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Australians have chosen to face global challenges the Australian way, looking after each other while building for the future,” Albanese told supporters in a victory speech in Sydney.
“We do not need to beg or borrow or copy from anywhere else. We do not seek our inspiration overseas. We find it right here in our values and in our people,” he added.
Albanese would be the first Australian prime minister to win a consecutive term in two decades. He said Australians had voted for fairness and “the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need”.
The Australian Electoral Commission website projected Labor would win 81 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives, increasing its majority in parliament, with 68% of the vote counted.
Dutton — whose Liberals had been leading in opinion polls as recently as February until he became dogged with comparisons to Trump — said he had phoned Albanese to congratulate him.
“We didn’t do well enough during this campaign. That much is obvious tonight, and I accept full responsibility for that,” Dutton said in a televised speech.
The former policeman with a reputation for being tough on crime and immigration said he had spoken to Labor’s candidate in the seat of Dickson he had held for two decades, and congratulated her on her success.
“We have been defined by our opponents in this election which is not the true story of who we are” Dutton said, promising the party would rebuild.
Cost-of-living pressures and concerns about Trump’s volatile policies had been among the top issues on voters’ minds, opinion polls showed.
“If you sling enough mud it will stick,” said Liberal Senator for the Northern Territory Jacinta Price, whose comments that her party would “make Australia great again” had fuelled comparisons to Trump’s own “Make America Great Again” slogan.
“You made it all about Trump,” she said on ABC. Dutton had said he would appoint Price to a ministry of government efficiency, one of several echoes of Trump’s policies.
“Losing Peter Dutton is a huge loss,” she added.
Opposition Liberal Party spokesman, Senator James Paterson, defended the conservative campaign, which he said was negatively affected by “the Trump factor”.
“It was devastating in Canada for the conservatives … I think it has been a factor here, just how big a factor will be determined in a few hours’ time,” he earlier told ABC.
Earlier, as counting got under way, Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government had been “in all sorts of trouble” at the end of 2024 but got back into the contest because of Albanese’s strong campaign performance, policies that addressed concerns about the cost of living, and the Trump effect.
As the results started emerging, he told ABC the projected victory was “a win for the ages”. Albanese “has pulled off one of the great political victories since federation,” he said.
The results were “absolutely unbelievable”, Labor supporter Melinda Adderley, 54, said through her tears at the election party.
