Albanese the ‘builder’ beats ‘bulldozer’ Morrison in tight election contest

AS I sat down to write this yesterday morning, polling stations in Australia had already been open for hours.

With the election on a knife-edge, voters were facing a stark choice for prime minister between the combative conservative incumbent Scott Morrison and opposition Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese.

Later, Albanese was set to become Australia’s next prime minister after leading his party to its first election victory in almost a decade.

One of the country’s longest-serving politicians, he promised voters “safe change” as he worked to kick out the conservative Liberal-National coalition which has been in power since 2013.

It’s a contest that was portrayed as one between Morrison, who has conceded he had been a “bit of a bulldozer” after his personality became an electoral liability and Albanese, who is a “builder’ and promised a more progressive, pragmatic style based on boosting wages and broadening opportunity for Australians.

But for many Australians the six-week election campaign was largely an attritional slog between two uninspiring leaders, with many voters rejecting both major parties and disillusionment expected to reach a record level in the election.

Australia’s Roy Morgan pollster had already forecast direct support for both major parties would fall below 40 per cent for the first time since 1906, reflecting a sharp rise in backing for independent parties.

Among these were the leftist Greens, on track for their best electoral result, and right-wing parties such as the United Australia party, which has run on a “freedom” campaign to tap into frustration over Covid lockdowns.

Both the Roy Morgan and the Australian Financial Review polls published on Friday showed Albanese leading by a ratio of 53 to 47, sharply down on the previous week, based on the preference voting system where backing for unsuccessful candidates is redistributed until a winner is declared.

Voting is compulsory in Australia and just over 17.2 million people enrolled to vote, according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

Record numbers of voters cast their ballots at early voting centres or via postal votes, and more than half of the total votes had been cast by Friday evening, according to the commission. Though national polls indicated Albanese as the likely winner, Morrison was in a similar position when he won three years ago in 2019, so Labor could not afford the luxury of complacency.

Some commentators predicted the race could be followed by a hung parliament, which would make the growing number of independent candidates very important to any bid to form a coalition.

The six-week election campaign was largely an attritional slog between two uninspiring leaders

The Australia that went to the polls yesterday is a very different country from the one that voted in a populist wave in 2019 to keep Morrison’s conservative Liberal Party in power. Since then, the country has endured record-setting wildfires and floods, Covid-fuelled isolation, and increasing foreign policy challenges from an assertive China. The cost of living has also become a growing worry as house prices soar, inflation rises, and wages stagnate.

“I want to bring Australians together. I want to seek our common purpose and promote unity and optimism, not fear and division,” Albanese said in a victory speech on Saturday night.

Time will tell if he does.