SYDNEY: Voting began on Saturday in Australia’s national election that polls show will likely favor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labour Party over the conservative opposition, as worries about Donald Trump’s volatile policies overshadowed calls for change.
Albanese said in televised comments from Melbourne that his center-left government had “built really strong foundations.” He has pledged to improve housing affordability and strengthen Australia’s universal health care system during his second term.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton also started his day in Melbourne, a key battleground, where he urged voters to choose his Liberal-National coalition “to get our country back on track.”
The election comes less than a week after Canada’s Liberal Party returned to power in a major political comeback, powered by a backlash against Trump’s tariffs and remarks on Canadian sovereignty.
Both of Australia’s major parties have focused on cost-of-living pressures but opinion polls show that global uncertainty driven by Trump’s stop-start tariffs rapidly became a top issue for voters during the campaign.
Labor has tried to cast ex-policeman Dutton, who has pledged to sharply reduce immigration and cut thousands of public service jobs, as a Trump-lite conservative, hoping some of Australians’ negative sentiment toward the US president will rub off on the opposition leader.
Dutton has sought to distance himself from comparisons with Trump adviser Elon Musk’s agency-cutting fervor but fell behind Labor after the US president placed tariffs on Australia. Dutton had led in opinion polls as recently as February.
Australia is a close US security ally and generally runs a trade deficit with the United States. Even so, it was not spared Trump’s tariffs with a 10 percent duty imposed on Australian exports.Polling booths in Australia — among the few democracies with mandatory voting — opened at 8 a.m., although a record 8 million out of 18 million eligible voters had already cast ballots before Saturday. Polls close at 6 p.m. (0800-1000 GMT depending on time zone).
Overseas, tens of thousands of Australians were expected to cast ballots at booths set up in 83 countries, Australia’s foreign affairs department said.
In the Sydney suburb of Bondi, voter Ben McCluskey said he felt upbeat about Labor winning a second term.
“I’m slightly positive. Hopefully it’s gonna be a minority government and the Greens get a balance of power,” the engineer, 41, said.
Nearby, Lucy Tonagh, a 28-year-old childcare worker, said rising living costs were front of mind for her at the ballot box.
“I feel like the cost of living and also childcare because that’s a key issue I find. There need to be more teachers,” Tonagh said.
Political strategists said Trump was not likely to be the decisive factor in the election — Albanese has run a strong campaign and Dutton made mistakes, including a short-lived proposal to ban public servants working from home. But the Trump effect, they said, has added to reservations for voters who became risk-averse.
A Newspoll published on Friday in The Australian newspaper showed Labor leading 52.5 percent-47.5 percent against the Liberal-National coalition, under Australia’s two-party preferential voting system.
Several polls suggest Labor may be forced into a minority government. Preferences among supporters of the minor parties and independents could be crucial under Australia’s ranked-choice voting system.