Labor leader Anthony Alabanese has been sworn in as the Prime Minister of Australia by the Governor General David Hurley today in Canberra.
59-year-old Anthony Albanese was born in Sydney and raised by a single mother. He has been a Member of Parliament for the division of Grayndler since 1996. He became the leader of Opposition in 2019 after Labor lost the last federal election under the leadership of Bill Shorten.
Mr Albanese was the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia in 2013 in the second Kevin Rudd government. He also served as a cabinet minister from 2007 to 2013 in both the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard governments.
Penny Wong has been sworn in as the new Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Senate. She will be joining PM Albanese for the QUAD summit in Tokyo. Richard Marles has been appointed Deputy PM and Minister for Defence, while Katy Gallagher is the new Minister for Finance, Minister for Public Service and Minister for Women. The new Treasurer is Jim Chalmers.
With over 70% of the votes counted, media projections are giving 72 seats to Labor, 4 seats shy of a full majority. The Australian Federal Parliament has 150 seats and to form the government a party needs 76 seats. Coalition is projected to get between 52-55 seats at this stage.Outgoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison has conceded the election and said that he will be stepping down as the leader of the Liberal Party.
The Coalition Government comprising of the Liberal National Party and The Nationals, which was fighting for a fourth consecutive term, is losing several seats to ‘teal’ independents. The ‘teal’ independents are a loosely-tied group of 22 candidates – 19 female and 3 male candidates – with past connections to either corporate or political establishment who were fighting against mostly Liberal MPs in Australia’s affluent electorates.
Among the prominent losers is former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg who lost to Dr Monique Ryan in Kooyong in Victoria. Sydney doctor Sophie Scamps has won the seat of Mackellar in NSW beating Liberal incumbent Jason Falanski. Kylea Tink has beaten sitting Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney.
The first Federal MP of Indian origin and the only one in the previous Parliament, Dave Sharma, also lost his seat to Independent Allegra Spender in Wentworth. Olympic medallist Zali Steggall who won the seat of Warringah in 2019 defeating former PM Tony Abbott retained her seat.
Meanwhile, Mr Albanese had told The Australian earlier that if he were to win it was his intention to go to the Quad leaders meeting to represent Australia which is taking place in Tokyo on 24th May.
“I will visit the Quad and renew my acquaintance with (US) President (Joe) Biden but also meet, very importantly, with (Japanese) Prime Minister (Fumio) Kishida and (Indian Prime Minister) Narendra Modi who are important friends of Australia” said Mr Albanese.
