Everything that you need to know about the new Prime Minister of Australia

Anthony Albanese has become the 31st Prime Minister of Australia after the Labor party defeated the ruling coalition led by Scott Morrison in the federal election held last week Saturday(21-05-2022). Besides, the election brought an end to almost a decade of conservative rule, while the Labor Party garnered support from the Australian Greens and teal independents.

The new Parliament will be more pro-climate than Morrison’s pro-coal mining administration. On the other hand, it is noteworthy to mention that Morrison had brought unemployment to its lowest level in almost half a century, which he pointed out during his campaign. At the same time, the Labor party emphasised rising inflation and sluggish wage growth as two of the most important topics of discussion.

Early beginnings

A single working mother raised Anthony Albanese in public housing in a working-class Sydney suburb on a disability pension. However, Albanese’s parents separated when he was young, but he tracked down his father and met him for the first time during his 40s in 2009.

In January 2022, while speaking at the National Press Club, he shared some incidents from his life apart from talking about politics. Also, he said that he depended on his neighbours for food during his childhood as his mother could not provide for him at times. Hence, incidents as such made him determined to help people like him by giving them a good life.

Initiation into politics

Anthony is known as “Albo’’, and he became interested in politics and the Labor party from his mother. In addition, he was the first to graduate high school and go to University in his family and in 1996; he was elected to Parliament for the first time. Also, in 2007, Albanese served for three years as Australia’s first federal infrastructure minister in then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor government. Then, in 2013, he was appointed deputy prime minister in the second Rudd government. Still, he only held the position for 83 days as the party lost the next election to the Liberal-National coalition.

Moreover, since the start of his career, human rights issues have been integral to him, and he is known to be the defender of the immigrants’ rights and Australia’s free health care system. In 1998, he appealed to pass a bill to grant same-sex couples the same superannuation benefits as heterosexual couples; the government passed the bill in 2007.

Gradually he ascended the ranks in his party and became the deputy Prime Minister in 2013 for a brief period. Also, when the Labor Party encountered a defeat in the 2019 election, Albanese became the Leader of Opposition.

During his recent campaign, Albanese said that he would take measures to reduce the rising cost of living, which has caused untold misery to vulnerable groups. Furthermore, he accused the coalition of inefficiently handling the rising inflation by saying that the cost of everything has been increasing except the wages.

Moreover, during a televised debate that took place on 11 May, Albanese said Labor would only support a 5.1% pay rise for Australians earning the minimum wage of $20.33 an hour and not for the 2.7 million others whose pay was set by an industrial award. On the other hand, Morrison replied by saying that Albanese had made a lot of promises, but he was yet to disclose the method of execution.

Albanese has also endorsed Australia’s controversial policy to turn back asylum-seekers arriving by boat, reversing his previous stance. Also, after being sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Australia, he went to Tokyo today(24 May 2022) to take part in the Quad leaders’ meeting.