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(Bloomberg) — For the second time in a week, voters in a prominent US ally angered by President Donald Trump punished conservatives and re-elected a left-leaning incumbent.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was poised to win the largest victory for his center-left Labor Party since 1946, both in terms of two-party preferred and overall seat count. He’s the first Australian leader to win consecutive elections in more than two decades, and the only one to increase his party’s vote share after one term since World War II.
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“We do not need to beg, or borrow, or copy from anywhere else,” Albanese said in his victory speech on Saturday night. “We do not seek our inspiration overseas. We find it right here, in our values and in our people.”
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Similar to Canada’s election last week, the outcome in Australia would’ve been hard to predict just months earlier. Both ruling parties were on the ropes, with conservatives in both countries seeking to capitalize on the momentum of Trump’s solid election win in November.
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Yet stunning turnarounds over the past few months led to big election wins for incumbents in both countries. Those results are set to reverberate across the world, as governments from Asia to Europe to Latin America grapple with how much to stand up against Trump’s tariffs and other threats.
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It particularly poses a dilemma for conservatives, who must decide whether to embrace Trump or run from him. While Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is riding a wave of support, suggesting that Trump-style populism is still attractive in some places, conservatives in Australia were feeling wounded after the election loss.
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“It would be dangerous for my party, and I speak as Ronald Reagan Republican and a George Bush Republican, speaking to Donald Trump’s positions,” James McGrath, a senator from Dutton’s Liberal Party, said on Australia’s ABC network on Saturday night.
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“We are a free-trade party and pro-Ukraine and we should continue to be centre-right,” he added. “We must resist that path.”
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Trump loomed over Australia’s campaign, with his decision to impose 10% “reciprocal” tariffs in early April coming just as the nation’s major political parties began canvassing for votes.
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Albanese’s party persistently accused opposition leader Peter Dutton of copying Trump’s policies, prompting him to distance himself from the US president in recent weeks. On Saturday night, Dutton followed Canadian conservative leader Pierre Poilievre out the door, losing his seat of Dickson to Labor.
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‘Big Thinker’
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Dutton made the mistake of trying to paint himself as closer to Trump in the early stages of the campaign. He complimented the US president as “shrewd” and a “big thinker,” while promoting Trump-like policies such as cutting the size of government, return to work for federal employees and ending progressive social policies.
English (US)