Australians will go to the polls on May 3rd for general elections with high costs of living and a shortage of housing likely weighing against the government as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left Labour Party seeks a second three-year term.
Albanese drove to Governor-General Sam Mostyn’s official residence today to trigger the election and announced the date later at a news conference at Parliament House.
He says over the last few years, the world has thrown a lot at Australia.
Albanese says in uncertain times, we cannot decide the challenges that we will face, but we can determine how we respond.
An Australian government has not been ousted after a single term since 1931, when the nation was grappling with the Great Depression. But Australian governments almost always lose ground in their second election and Labour holds only 77 of the 151 seats in the House of Representatives, where governments need a majority.
Redistributions mean there will be only 150 seats after the next election.
One likely outcome is a minority government supported by independent or minor party legislators.
The 2022 election brought a record 19 lawmakers who were not aligned to either the government or opposition into the Parliament.
Unaligned lawmakers could be crucial to whether Labour or Dutton’s conservative Liberal Party forms Australia’s first minority election since the 2010 election.
[Source: CNN/AP]
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