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Anthony Albanese has ridden a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to win a landslide second term as Australian prime minister, just three months after polls suggested he faced a humiliating defeat.
Albanese has become the first Australian prime minister in more than 20 years to claim back-to-back victories and the first Labor leader to achieve that feat since Bob Hawke in 1990.
Labor needed 76 seats to form a government and was projected to win almost 90 seats as the count continued.
On Saturday night, Albanese addressed a roomful of raucous supporters in Western Sydney and said that voters had chosen “the Australian way” by rejecting the rightwing campaign of the Liberal opposition party, which included proposals championed by US President Donald Trump.
“We do not need to beg or borrow or copy from anywhere else. We do not seek our inspiration from overseas. We find it right here, in our values and in our people,” he said.
Peter Dutton, the Liberal leader, conceded defeat on Saturday evening and lost his seat to a Labor candidate. The opposition will have to appoint a new leader who will be tasked with revitalising the party after suffering its worst result in more than 80 years.
“We didn’t do well enough during this campaign. That much is obvious tonight and I accept full responsibility,” Dutton told supporters at Liberal headquarters.
Support for the Liberals collapsed over the course of the election campaign. Their platform — which included plans to slash government spending and public sector jobs and attacks on “woke” agendas — failed to gain traction with voters who have been repelled by the US president’s tariff agenda and aggressive foreign policy.
James Paterson, a senator and spokesperson for the Liberals, said: “One factor we can all recognise is the Trump factor.” He described Trump’s impact on the race as “significant”.
Australia’s poll comes days after voters returned the Canadian Liberal party to government in a sharp turnaround in the polls due largely to Trump’s intervention. The Liberals were running a distant second to the Conservatives before Trump mocked Canada, threatened to annex the country and said he would impose tariffs on it.
Wayne Swan, the former Australian Treasurer, said Saturday’s result echoed the Canadian poll. “It’s a great result for the social democrats around the world,” Swan said.
Irene Kontominas, who voted for Labor in the marginal seat of Fowler in Sydney’s outer west, said that Trump had played a part in her vote. But she also argued that Dutton had failed to make a compelling case for dumping Labor.
“It’s not enough. It’s better the devil you know,” she said.
Albanese started the day broadcasting live from Melbourne Cricket Ground, where he said the prospect of back-to-back wins was the “holy grail”.
The election was largely fought in the suburban seats of Melbourne and Sydney where disgruntled voters struggling with rising rents and mortgages, plus high electricity, food and petrol prices, had soured on both big parties.
Sajedul Hasan, an accountant in Fowler, said Dutton’s proposal to force thousands of public sector remote workers back to the office had triggered a “massive change” in voter sentiment in the area, where many residents work from home.
He added that Dutton’s ignorance of the cost of food during television debates had also damaged his chances. “If you don’t know the price of eggs, how can you represent us?” Hasan asked.
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