LABOR PARTY TOPPLES CONSERVATIVES IN AUSTRALIA VOTE

New PM pledges to push for higher minimum wage, greater emissions cuts

Anthony Albanese and his opposition Labor Party ended nine years of conservative government in Australia on Saturday as Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded defeat of the coalition he led.

A handful of races were still too close to call, but early results showed Labor winning at least 72 seats of the 76 needed to form a government. Alliances with independent and minor-party victors would give it a majority if it does not reach 76 seats by itself.

“Tonight, the Australian people have voted for change,” Albanese said in his victory speech in Sydney, during which he also repeated a theme of his campaign. “It says a lot about our great country that the son of a single mom who was a disability pensioner, who grew up in public housing down the road in Camperdown, can stand before you tonight as Australia’s prime minister.”

The Labor victory, on a campaign promising “renewal not revolution,” makes Albanese the fourth Labor leader to win the government from the opposition since World War II. After a race that became a referendum on Morrison and his combative style — in the final days, he acknowledged that he could be “a bit of a bulldozer” and promised to change — the results pointed to exhaustion with the incumbent more than enthusiasm for the challenger.

“I’ve always believed in Australians and their judgment, and I’ve always been prepared to accept their verdict,” Morrison said in conceding.

Polls taken just before Election Day showed that neither candidate had approval ratings more than 50 percent. But in the end, Albanese, who has spent his entire career in Labor Party politics, including 23 years in Parliament, managed to persuade voters that it was time for Labor and its promise of “a better future.”

Political analysts said the conservative Liberal-national coalition faltered in large part because the prime minister had lost the public’s trust as he defended a government pulled to the right by members who refused to seriously tackle problems like climate change, integrity in government and sexual harassment in politics.

Instead of Morrison’s blustery style — leading a government that passed little memorable legislation but successfully managed the early months of the pandemic — Albanese promised to be more collaborative, sharing the spotlight and the decision-making.

“He’s got an experienced and pretty talented front bench, so I expect he will govern in a very collegial way,” said Paul Strangio, a politics professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Albanese has promised to push for a higher minimum wage and for more money for the “caring economy” — child care centers, health care, nursing homes and disability services.

He and his party also pledged to nearly double Australia’s 2030 target for cuts to carbon emissions, bringing the country more in line with other developed countries; to support a federal anti-corruption commission; and to increase foreign aid in a broader plan to tighten relations with Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands to counter China’s growing ambitions.

James Curran, a historian at the University of Sydney, said many of Australia’s most successful Labor leaders — such as Paul Keating or Bob Hawke — exuded charisma and promised big shifts in how Australia worked, domestically and internationally.

Albanese, by contrast, won with a pitch for workmanlike competence and incremental change.

“Albanese upsets the historic apple cart,” Curran said. “But maybe our times suit this.”

RICK RYCROFT AP Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese (center) celebrates with his son Nathan (right) and his partner Jodie Haydon in Sydney.