<\/p>\n
Australia will hold a general election on May 3, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday, locking in a showdown over climate promises, nuclear power and a runaway housing market.<\/p>\n
Albanese’s centre-left Labor party took office in May 2022, turfing out a conservative government deeply unpopular after almost a decade in charge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But initial enthusiasm for Albanese, 62, has evaporated in recent months as he struggles to sell his economic vision to the country.<\/p>\n
Polls show him neck-and-neck with right-leaning Peter Dutton, 54, a hard-nosed former detective who wants to cut back on immigration and reverse a ban on nuclear power.<\/p>\n
“Over the last few years, the world has thrown a lot at Australia in uncertain times,” the prime minister told reporters.<\/p>\n
“Because of the strength and resilience that our people have shown Australia is turning the corner. Now, on May 3, you choose the way forward.”<\/p>\n
Coal mining-superpower Australia will choose between two candidates with sharply contrasting ideas on climate change and emissions reduction.<\/p>\n
Albanese’s government has embraced the global push towards decarbonisation, warning of a future in which iron ore and polluting coal exports no longer prop up the economy.<\/p>\n
His election catchcry is “building Australia’s future” — an agenda that includes big subsidies for renewable energy and green manufacturing.<\/p>\n
A government budget released this week poured money into traditional Labor priorities such as education and healthcare.<\/p>\n
“Getting Australia back on track,” is the rival slogan of Dutton.<\/p>\n
Dutton’s signature policy is a US$200 billion scheme to construct seven industrial-scale nuclear reactors.<\/p>\n
Polling shows economic concerns and the high cost of housing will dominate the contest.<\/p>\n
Although inflation has eased under Albanese — from 7.8 percent in 2022 to 2.4 percent in December — many households are still struggling with high food, fuel, and power prices.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Both sides have vowed to tackle an overheated housing market.<\/p>\n
Sydney now ranks as the second least affordable place to buy on the planet, according to the annual Demographia index, sitting behind only notoriously crammed Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
– ‘Not a monster’ –<\/p>\n
Albanese has spent most of his adult life in politics, rising through the Labor Party ranks from humble working-class beginnings.<\/p>\n
He touts his love of indie music and his shaggy cavoodle Toto — and once famously declared that “fighting Tories” was his purpose.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dutton is a former drug squad detective widely seen as a no-nonsense political “hardman”.<\/p>\n
His success will hinge, in part, on efforts to soften this image and broaden his appeal.<\/p>\n
Dutton’s wife once told a tabloid newspaper that her misunderstood husband was “not a monster”.<\/p>\n
An accomplished minister in the previous conservative government, Dutton has held weighty portfolios such as defence and home affairs.<\/p>\n
But he faced heavy criticism for his unyielding treatment of asylum seekers as Australia’s immigration minister.<\/p>\n
– Independents day –<\/p>\n
Australian politics has long been dominated by Albanese’s left-leaning Labor Party and Dutton’s right-leaning Liberals.<\/p>\n
But growing disenchantment among voters has emboldened independents pushing for greater transparency and climate progress.<\/p>\n
Polls suggest 10 or more unaligned crossbenchers could hold the balance of power — making a rare minority government a distinct possibility.<\/p>\n
The two major parties largely agree on defence and national security, committing Australia to an increasingly close military alliance with the United States.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But they have differed over China in the past.<\/p>\n
Albanese has upped engagement with key trading partner China and made a breakthrough trip to Beijing in 2023, the first Australian leader to visit in seven years.<\/p>\n
The previous conservative government was highly critical of China, igniting a trade war that cost Australia billions of dollars until subsiding late last year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n
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Canberra: Australia will hold a general election on May 3, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday, locking in a showdown over climate promises, nuclear power and a runaway housing market. Albanese’s centre-left Labor party took office in May 2022, turfing out a conservative government deeply unpopular after almost a decade in charge. But initial enthusiasm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}