Australia Election

Australians vote as high prices, housing shortage dominate election issues

Polls opened in Australia's general election on Saturday with high costs of living and a shortage of housing major issues in the campaign. Voting across the nation the size of three times zones spanning two hours will continue from 8 am (22.00 GMT Friday) until 6 pm (08.00 GMT Saturday) in eastern Australia. The polls open and close two hours later on the West Coast. Around half the ballots had already been cast, but not counted, since early and postal voting began on April 22. Australia is among the few countries where voting is compulsory, a system that leans toward creating centrist governments. At the last election in 2022, 90 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's centre-left Labour Party is seeking a second three-year term. His opponent, conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton, wants to become the first political leader to oust a first-term government since 1931, when Australians were reeling from the Great Depression. The election i

Key issues in Australia's election: Cost of living, housing, China, energy

Australians will go to the polls on May 3 for general elections with high costs of living and a shortage of housing likely weighing against the government as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's centre-left Labour Party seeks a second three-year term. The elections will be dominated by the soaring cost of living, the economy, energy and China. Affordable housing is in short supply, interest rates remain high and the major parties are starkly divided on how to wean the nation off fossil fuel-generated electricity. The major parties also differ on how to deal with China, which is at once Australia's largest trading partner and its greatest strategic threat. Here's what you need to know about the main issues: Surging inflation Australians have endured one of the sharpest rises in the cost of living in recent history and the current government has been at the helm through the worst of it. Egg prices surged 11 per cent last year and beer rose 4 per cent, according to government ...

Australia to put 2-year restrictions on foreigners purchasing homes

Dissatisfaction with housing in Australia reached an all-time high last year and it is an issue that is expected to dominate a general election due by May

Labor Party's Anthony Albanese sworn in as Australia's new prime minister

Albanese claimed the victory on Saturday night in the election, ending his wait for power after nine years and with this Anthony Albanese became the country's 31st Prime Minister

Australia's PM-elect Anthony Albanese no stranger to India: Envoy

Australia's Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese is no stranger to India, Australian High Commissioner Barry O'Farrell said after incumbent Scott Morrison conceded defeat in the election on Saturday.

PM Modi expected to meet new Australian PM at QUAD Summit in Tokyo

At the upcoming Quad Summit in Japan on May 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with his new Australian counterpart, as Australia went to polls on Saturday.

Aus PM Morrison concedes, ending nearly a decade of conservative rule

Partial results showed Morrison's Liberal-National coalition had been punished by voters in Western Australia and affluent urban seats in particular

Opposition Labour Party more likely to form Australia's government

The opposition Labour Party appeared more likely than Prime Minister Scott Morrison's coalition to form government after Australia's election on Saturday that could result in a rare hung parliament.

Australians vote to choose new PM on Saturday: Here's what you need to know

Opinion polls have shown Labor leading, but the gap has narrowed in the final weeks of campaigning

Cost of living in focus as Australia's election race hits final stretch

Morrison and Labor Opposition leader Anthony Albanese targeted marginal seats in the final 48 hours of the six-week campaign as data showed wages growth being outstripped by inflation

Australian Prime Minister Morrison launches campaign days before poll

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's coalition trails the centre-left Labour Party opposition in most opinion polls as the administration seeks a rare fourth three-year term in elections on Saturday

Kim Jong Un lookalike disrupts Australian PM Morrison's election campaign

The impersonator, who later identified himself by the stage name Howard X, started talking to gathered media

Covid-safe election to cost Aussie taxpayers additional $22.9 million

Australia's next federal election is likely to cost the country about an additional 30 million Australian dollars ($22.9 million) due to Covid-19 measures

Australian heat on election exit polls after govt wins surprise second term

Tasmanian electoral analyst Kevin Bonham also described the events as a "massive polling failure"

Australia elections: PM Morrison-led coalition scores a miracle win

The poll showed the Labor winning as many as 82 seats, beating the ruling Coalition

Australian conservative PM Scott Morrison hails 'miracle' poll victory

Morrison had wooed voters by saying if re-elected Coalition would deliver a stable economy, more jobs and tax cuts

India-born Labour party candidate wins local election in Australia

Michel was born in India, moved to Australia 27 years ago and to the Pilbara in 2001

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull set to form govt after governor general's nod

Turnbull wrote to the governor general saying Opposition leader Bill Shorten had conceded defeat and the coalition had at least 74 seats

Australia elections: PM Malcolm Turnbull to decide Cabinet after win

Turnbull said there would likely be "many new and younger faces" in the new-look coalition government

Australian election: PM Malcolm Turnbull likely to win, says Opposition

Turnbull lost the government's comfortable majority in the House of Representatives in Saturday's election