Labour’s win in Australia a rejection of Trump agenda

The Labour Party has been re-elected in the Australian parliamentary election. The preliminary results showed that it won 77 of the 150 seats, while the opposition Liberals managed to get 34. Labour leader and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in his victory speech, “In this time of global uncertainty, Australians have chosen optimism and determination. Australians have chosen to face global challenges the Australian way looking after each other while building for the future.”

As in the Canadian election, the Australian Liberals, with their conservative credentials, hoped to make it back to power after they lost office in the 2022 election. They were in power for nine years. Liberal leader Peter Dutton had conceded defeat and congratulated Albanese. He is also the first opposition leader to lose his own seat in the federal election. Liberal leader and Senator James Paterson referred to the ‘Trump factor’ in the Australian election. He said, “It was devastating in Canada for the conservatives...I think it has been a factor here, but how big a factor will be determined in a few hours’ time.”

The agenda on which Albanese and the Labour won the election is opposite that of Trump. Albanese has promised to extend Medicare, help home-buyers with a subsidy, and he acknowledged the Aborigines, the people who lived in Australia for thousands of years before British colonialism started in the late 18th century. Albanese said, “...and I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand.”

The Aborigines have been demanding that they should be recognised as the First Nations in the Constitutions, and they be given representation in parliament. There was a referendum on the issue last October and it did not get the required majority. The political leaders are quite sensitive to the demand. Albanese’ assertion is a show of deep sympathy and support for the rights and demands of the Aborigines people in the country.

Albanese and the Labour Party rode back to power on the welfare plank, which the conservatives all over the world have been pooh-poohing in many countries of Europe and in the United States through Trump’s presidential victory last November.

But the election results in Canada and Australia have shown that the welfare state politics are not dead, and people welcome state support on health, education, and in Australia, help in buying a home. Social security has become a scorned term in the wake of Trump’s success, but it is clear that this is not so everywhere. There are poor people and the not-so-rich who need the helping hand of the state, and free markets cannot be trusted to deliver to the majority of people their basic needs.

The return of Labour to power in Australia also means that Australia will broadly remain the ally of the United States in the Asia-Pacific through the security alliance of Australia, United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS), and also through the QUAD, comprising the United States, India, Japan and Australia, which is considered to be an anti-China grouping. But individually, all the four countries are dealing with China on their own, and they have their own equation with Beijing.

Albanese recognises the importance of China for his country, and he has been pragmatic enough to push for better trade relations with China. Australia benefits hugely from exports of beef and wine to China. Unlike the United Kingdom, which has been toeing a soft line towards President Trump’s tariff policies, Albanese has been clear that the 10 per cent tariff on Australian exports to the US is not the gesture of a friend. So, when it comes to defending the interests of Australia, Albanese will steer an independent line like his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney.