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Australians will cram voting booths on Saturday to pick their next government, deciding a hard-fought election shaped by living costs, climate anxiety and Trump tariffs.<\/p>\n
From dusty desert towns to sun-splashed harbour cities, millions of Australians will choose between left-leaning incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and conservative challenger Peter Dutton.<\/p>\n
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The almost universal consensus across a slew of opinion polls leading up to election day was that Albanese’s governing Labor Party would win its second term.<\/p>\n
“No one would deny these are uncertain times. And in times of uncertainty, we usually see voters swing towards incumbent governments,” Roy Morgan pollster Michele Levine said as polling day approached.<\/p>\n
A total of 18.1 million voters have enrolled for the election. More than a third of them have cast an early ballot, the election authority says.<\/p>\n
Voting is compulsory, enforced with fines of Aus$20 (US$13), leading to turnouts that top 90 percent.<\/p>\n
A result could come as soon as Saturday night, unless the vote is very tight.<\/p>\n
Albanese, 62, has promised to embrace renewable energy, tackle a worsening housing crisis, and pour money into a creaking healthcare system.<\/p>\n
Trump slump<\/strong><\/p>\n Liberal Party leader and former police officer Dutton, 54, wants to slash immigration, crack down on crime and ditch a longstanding ban on nuclear power.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some polls showed Dutton leaking support because of US President Donald Trump, who he praised this year as a “big thinker” with “gravitas” on the global stage.<\/p>\n As Australians soured on Trump, both Dutton and Albanese took on a more pugnacious tone.<\/p>\n “If I needed to have a fight with Donald Trump or any other world leader, to advance our nation’s interest, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Dutton said in April.<\/p>\n Albanese condemned Trump’s tariffs as an act of “economic self-harm” and “not the act of a friend”.<\/p>\n Economic concerns dominated the contest for the many Australian households struggling to pay inflated prices for milk, bread, power and petrol.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “The cost of living — it’s extremely high at the moment. So, taxes as well, is also another really big thing. Petrol prices, all the basic stuff,” human resources manager Robyn Knox told AFP in Brisbane.<\/p>\n Small business owner Jared Bell had similar concerns.<\/p>\n “Our grocery shops are definitely way more expensive than they were a couple years ago,” he said.<\/p>\n Campaign stumbles<\/strong><\/p>\n Both Albanese and Dutton tried to tout themselves as men of the people but were stumped when asked the price of eggs in a nationally televised debate.<\/p>\n Coal-mining superpower Australia will choose between two leaders 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 <\/p>\n Dutton’s signature policy is a US$200 billion scheme to construct seven industrial-scale nuclear reactors, doing away with the need to ramp up renewables.<\/p>\n The 36-day campaign was a largely staid affair but there were a few moments of unscripted levity.<\/p>\n Albanese tumbled backwards off the stage at a heaving campaign rally, while Dutton drew blood when he hit an unsuspecting cameraman in the head with a stray football.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It remains to be seen whether Albanese or Dutton will command an outright majority, or whether they are forced to cobble together a coalition with the support of minor parties.<\/p>\n Growing disenchantment among voters has emboldened independents pushing for greater transparency and climate progress.<\/p>\n Polls have suggested 10 or more unaligned crossbenchers could hold the balance of power — making a rare minority government a distinct possibility.<\/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 Australians will cram voting booths on Saturday to pick their next government, deciding a hard-fought election shaped by living costs, climate anxiety and Trump tariffs. From dusty desert towns to sun-splashed harbour cities, millions of Australians will choose between left-leaning incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and conservative challenger Peter Dutton. The almost universal consensus across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671","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=4671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4673,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4671\/revisions\/4673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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