Australia began counting votes in Saturday’s election with opinion polls showing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was on track to become the first leader to win consecutive ballots in more than two decades.
Some of the largest states wrapped up voting at 6 pm local time, including New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Voting booths will close half an hour later in South Australia and the Northern Territory, and then two hours after that in Western Australia. First results are expected to start trickling in from about 7 pm local time, with the winner likely to be known later Saturday night.
Albanese’s Labor government is fighting for a second term against center-right opposition leader Peter Dutton, a former policeman, in a campaign that has focused heavily on cost-of-living issues following three years of elevated inflation, high interest rates and a national housing crisis.
The campaign has been overshadowed by US President Donald Trump’s tariff program, with the American leader announcing his “reciprocal” imposts in early April just as both major parties began making their pitch to voters. Liberal-National Coalition leader Dutton was forced to distance himself from Trump, who he initially praised, as the US president has become increasingly unpopular in Australia.
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Despite those efforts, Dutton has seen his approval rating slip over the course of the campaign. In the final Newspoll survey published on Friday evening, usually considered a strong indicator of the election outcome, Albanese’s Labor Party was leading Dutton’s Coalition by 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent. If reflected on election night, that would see the prime minister re-elected with either a slim majority or a minority government needing the support of minor parties and independents.
Albanese and Dutton voted in their home cities of Sydney and Brisbane, respectively, on Saturday, joined by their families. Starting the day in Melbourne, where key seats in the election will be decided, the prime minister said Australia is “turning a corner.”
“We are the best country on the planet, but we can be even stronger in the future. And we have a really positive offering to building Australia’s future at this election,” Albanese told Seven’s Sunrise television program.
Meanwhile, Dutton said he was confident that the “quiet Australians” would deliver him victory on Saturday night, despite what the polls were indicating.
“Many Australians are saying that they’re worse off than they were three years ago before this prime minister was elected. They just don’t feel better off in their own lives, their own budgets,” Dutton told 4BC radio on Friday afternoon.
Early voting has been open for two weeks across Australia and about 6.7 million people have already cast their ballots, almost a third of Australia’s entire electoral roll.
