Australia goes to the polls today, pitting the first-term Labor government of prime minister Anthony Albanese against the Liberal-National party coalition headed by Liberal leader Peter Dutton.
As the election campaign for the federal election entered its final week, the agenda-setting Newspoll in the Australian newspaper asked voters whether Albanese’s government deserves re-election. Damningly, less than two-fifths said yes; well over half said it deserves throwing out.
It’s no wonder voters feel angry about Labor
Yet Newspoll, and all other opinion polls, have Labor on track to win today, either in a narrow majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives, or in minority supported by a left-leaning crossbench.
It’s no wonder voters feel angry about Labor. In 2022, Albanese campaigned on being a safe alternative to the decaying and disunited coalition government led by unpopular Scott Morrison. But once in office, public spending exploded, despite an already Covid-bloated balance sheet. Inflation and interest rates remained stubbornly high, fuelled by wage rises without productivity gains, and living standards fell.
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