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SYDNEY – Australia’s Labor Party leader, Anthony Albanese, was sworn in as the country’s 31st prime minister on Monday, vowing to unite the country after a broken election campaign pledging to tackle climate change and inequality.
In Saturday’s general election, Greens and climate-centric independents returned to power after nine years of opposition as a wave of unprecedented support for mostly women, which helped to remove the Conservative coalition in Saturday’s general election.
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“I look forward to leading a government that makes Australians proud, a government that does not want to divide, that does not want wages but wants to unite the people,” Albanese said in his first media briefing since taking office. Prime Minister.
Although the votes are still being counted and the government’s makeup has not yet been finalized, Albanese was sworn in by Governor-General David Hurley at a ceremony in the national capital, Canberra, to attend a meeting of the “quad” security group. Tokyo on Tuesday.
India, the United States, Japan and Australia are members of the Quad, an informal group that Washington is promoting as a potential obstacle to China’s growing political, commercial and military activity in the Indo-Pacific region.
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Albanese said the country’s relations with China would remain “difficult” before a summit with US President Joe Biden and the prime ministers of Japan and India.
Wang will be joined by Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles and three prime ministers – Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Treasurer Jim Chalmer and Katie Gallagher – who will join Albanese on a quad trip.
Working class card
The Labor campaign has widely illuminated the working class identity of the Albanians – a boy raised in public housing by a single mother on a disability pension – and his image as a realist integrator.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, the center-left Labor is leading with 76 seats in the 151-seat lower house, some very close to the race call. With the postal vote count continuing, the non-partisan or green party appears poised to win more than a dozen seats.
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The so-called “Till Independent” campaign, on a platform rich in climate, integrity and equality, can still have a significant impact.
Independent Monique Ryan says climate was the most important issue for selectors in her seat in Melbourne’s Cuong, which outgoing treasurer Josh Friedenberg officially acknowledged on Monday.
“We’ve heard what people want, we’ve heard their values and their aspirations, and we’ve created a platform that reflects them,” Ryan said.
Albanese said he hoped Labor would get enough seats to govern themselves, but added that he had reached an agreement with some independents that they would not support a no-confidence motion against his government.
After returning from Japan, Albanese said he would work quickly to implement his election promises, including setting up a national anti-corruption commission and A $ 15 billion ($ 10.6 billion) production fund to diversify Australia’s economy.
He said the full ministry would be sworn in on June 1.
Australian financial markets have offered a muted response to Monday’s election results, with results already set and no radical change in economic direction expected.
“Our economic forecast and the (Reserve Bank of Australia’s) national leadership remain unchanged,” said economists at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. (1 = 1.4108 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Gary Doyle)