Australia election results: Anthony Albanese may take a hard-turn Left with support from Greens

Australia’s next government will lurch to the left under influence from the Greens and climate-conscious independents after Labor won the election with its lowest primary vote since 1910, according to Nationals senator Matt Canavan and conservative commentators.

Labor looks on track to form a narrow majority in the lower house to avoid relying on support from the Greens and the so-called ‘teal’ independents to form government. 

But the ALP will definitely need backing from the Greens and possibly teal independent David Pocock or Jacqui Lambie to pass its laws through the senate. 

This has led Senator Canavan to brand the new government ‘woke’, meaning it will be excessively sensitive to social issues such as race, gender, sexuality and climate change. 

In a sign this may will ring true, Mr Albanese dedicated a large part of his victory speech to his plan to allow Aboriginal people to provide advice to Parliament rather than focussing on the cost of living crisis affecting battling Aussies.

Amid a huge boost in votes for the Greens and independents, Labor secured a primary vote of only 32.8 per cent, below the Coalition’s 35.4 per cent, and its lowest for decades. 

‘I’ve woken up with a positive frame of mind because this Labor Government has been elected on the lowest primary vote the Labor Party has ever received since 1910,’ Senator Canavan told Sky News on Sunday morning after he was re-elected to the Queensland senate.

‘They’re going to be beholden to the teals to the left, in the senate to the Greens, so it’s going to be a Labor, Green, Bandt, teal government, an LGBT government,’ he said referring to Greens leader Adam Bandt.

Senator Canavan said this combination would be unpopular with mainstream Australia and hoped the Coalition would win power back in three years. 

‘You go woke, you go broke so let’s just sit back and get the popcorn out,’ he said.

Conservative business commentator Terry McCrann also said the country would lurch to the left under a Labor-Greens alliance.

‘Be really afraid, if Labor actually gets a majority in the Senate in combination with the Greens and perhaps two Jackie Lambie senators,’ he wrote in the Herald Sun.

‘That would see a Labor agenda super-charged by the most extreme Dark Green lunacies pass straight through both houses and into law.’

The Greens want to ban all new coal and gas projects, legalise cannabis, wipe student debt and massively raise the minimum wage to $57,264 per year, up from $40,175.

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce warned about the danger of a Greens-Labor partnership.

‘I hope they don’t put regional Australia projects to the sword. We have fought because we need to make Australia a fair place, we need to have an expanse of investment across our nation, we need to invest where we make money,’ he said.

He also lamented that the Coalition has become less diverse after high-profile members lost their seats in the Liberal bloodbath.

‘They have removed the Indigenous Affairs Minister, three openly gay people, an Asian member of Parliament, is that what they wanted to achieve? Is that success for them, is it,’ he said. 

Mr Albanese won the election on a ‘small target’ strategy by proposing no major tax changes.

His most expensive policy is to make childcare cheaper, costing $5.4billion over four years.

But outgoing PM Scott Morrison warned Labor would lurch the left in Government and tax and spend more.

Mr Albanese – who was raised in housing commission by a single mother on benefits – is from the Left of the Labor Party. 

In his younger years he spoke out against the privatisation of companies and advocated an inheritance tax.

The 59-year-old now presents himself as a mainstream centrist but Mr Morrison does not buy his change of heart. 

‘I don’t believe Antony Albanese has changed at all,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘I think he’s the same Tory-fighting leftie that he’s always been. My observation is that what’s always motivated him is political struggle.’   

Mr Morrison said Labor is filled with ‘fantastical visions’ about how to reform the economy but ‘always stuff it up’.

‘They stuff it up because they don’t understand the limitations of government and they don’t understand the full power of community and individuals and businesses and people making their own choices.

‘It’s like they don’t trust Australians with their choices, that they have to make them for them. And I’ve always found that quite elitist and quite arrogant,’ he said.

The Prime Minister also warned ‘militant unions’ who fund the Labor Party would ‘have a much stronger say in how our government is run’. 

The Greens picked up 12.3 per cent of the primary vote, with Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party garnering 4.4 per cent.

Independents scored 5.9 per cent of the vote, with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation reaping 5.1 per cent.

Labor’s policies include a plan to force companies to reveal how much they pay men and women.

Mr Albanese has also pledged to lobby the Fair Work Commission to raise the minimum wage by more than the 5.1 per cent inflation rate.

Other key policies include help free TAFE places, greener energy and introducing an indigenous voice in Parliament, in line with the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Mr Albanese revealed the full costings of his policy plans just two days before the election, announcing his government would deliver a deficit $7.4 billion bigger than the Coalition with a raft of bigger spending policies.

‘I have shared the true principles that will drive the government that I lead,’ Mr Albanese said in his victory speech.

‘No one left behind because we should always look after the disadvantaged and the vulnerable.’

Mr Albanese’s victory over Mr Morrison and the Liberal Party means his policies will now become reality – so long as he can get them through the new Senate. 

Below, Daily Mail Australia takes a look at the prime minister-elect’s vision for the future of Australia – and the major policies he will be focusing upon.  

Help for first homebuyers 

Labor will introduce a ‘Help to Buy’ scheme where the government would take a 40 per cent stake in up to 10,000 homes a year to help people earning less than $90,000 on to the property ladder.

Mr Albanese will also create a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to build 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years.

Childcare changes

One of Labor’s most significant policies is to increase childcare subsidies for all families earning less than $530,000.

‘We can write universal childcare into that proud tradition,’ Mr Albanese told supporters. 

Mr Albanese would remove a cap that prevents families earning more than $189,390 from receiving more than $10,560 a year in subsidies.

A family on $189,390 that uses childcare five days a week would instead get $21,608 in subsidies, more than double the current allowance.

Lower income families would also benefit from increased subsidies. For example, a family taking home $80,000 a year would get an extra $2,389 a year for full-time care.

Labor will also launch a review into providing a 90 per cent universal childcare subsidy.

Tax cuts

Labor will implement the stage-three income tax cuts in 2024, which will create a flat rate of 30 per cent between $45,000 and $200,000.

The move mostly benefits those earning more than $120,000, who are now still taxed at 37 per cent.

Labor dropped its 2019 policy to ban negative gearing, a major tax bonus for property investors which economists say pushes up house prices. 

Mr Albanese talked about Labor as the party of opportunity, using the language of self improvement over class warfare in his speech.

‘But also no one held back: of course, we should always support aspiration and opportunity,’ he said.

Education

Labor will provide 465,000 free TAFE places and 20,000 extra university places under a $1.2 billion plan.

The free TAFE places will be for courses in industries with a skills shortages such as trades and construction, resources, digital and cyber security, new energy, and advanced manufacturing.

Labor has no plans to reduce university fees after the Coalition hiked prices for humanities courses.

Access to GPs

Mr Albanese has pledged to build 50 first-aid clinics across the country.

The clinics will treat non-life threatening injuries such as broken bones, minor burns, cuts and animal stings and be open every day between 8am to 10pm.

He also promised to spend $750 million over four years to improve access to GPs including outside business hours.

Labor will increase government subsidies for medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme by reducing the maximum cost for the patient from $42.50 to $30 per script.

Defence and borders 

Labor is backing the AUKUS alliance and obtaining nuclear-powered submarines to counter the rise of China.

Labor supports boat turn-backs and offshore processing but would scrap temporary protection visas. This would allow thousands of refugees already living in Australia to stay permanently. 

The Coalition argued such a move would encourage people smugglers to start sending boats here again. 

Climate change 

Labor is committed to net zero emissions by 2050 with a target of 43 per cent reduction by 2030 – more than the Coalition’s 26-28 per cent. 

Together, we can take advantage of the opportunity for Australia to be a renewable energy superpower,’ Mr Albanese declared in his victory speech.

Labor will spend $20 billion to upgrade the electricity grid to improve transmission, roll out 85 solar banks and 400 community batteries and invest in 10,000 ‘new energy apprentices’ alongside a $10 million new energy skills program.

Mr Albanese said the plan would allow cheaper renewable sources to supply 82 per cent of electricity by 2030.

The plan is projected to create 604,000 jobs and slash average household energy prices by $275 a year by 2025 and $378 by 2035.

The new Labor government will also spend $3 billion on renewables manufacturing and deploying low-emissions technologies – as well as remove taxes on electric cars to make them cheaper.

Aged care changes

Mr Albanese outlined plans to improve aged care after a Royal Commission reported shocking incidences of neglect.

Labor sparked controversy by announcing it would require aged care homes to have a nurse on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from July 2023, a year before the Commission recommended.

The ALP will also make a submission to the Fair Work Commission to support a pay rise for aged care workers.

‘Together, we can fix the crisis in aged care,’ Mr Albanese said.

Addressing the gender pay gap

Anthony Albanese has vowed to introduce a law forcing companies to reveal how much they pay men and women if he becomes prime minister. 

Manufacturing

Labor will set up a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to fund major manufacturing projects across the nation.

The fund will provide loans, guarantees and equity to support projects in resources, transport, agriculture, medicine, energy, and defence.

Labor said the policy would ‘secure well-paid jobs, drive regional development, and invest in our national sovereign capability, broadening and diversifying Australia’s economy’.

Trains, trams, and ferries will be made in Australia instead of overseas and a fast rail line between Sydney and Newcastle will be built.

Corruption watchdog

Labor will set up a federal integrity commission which the Morrison Government promised in 2019 then failed to deliver.

The Coalition’s proposed model cannot hold its own independent inquiries, public inquiries or investigate past scandals but Labor’s would be able to do all these things.

Industrial relations 

Labor will implement a series of industrial relations reforms to re-define casual work and give Australians more chance at securing permanent jobs. 

In March 2021 the government defined casual work for the first time as a situation where a worker has ‘no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work according to an agreed pattern of work’.

But Labor will change this so employment status is determined by workers’ shift patterns.

If an employee has regular shifts for a defined time period then they would be permanent not casual, such as a coal miner who has a 12 month fixed roster. 

Mr Albanese will improve the rights of so-called gig workers such as Uber drivers and Deliveroo drivers.

Labor will extend the powers of the Fair Work Commission to include ’employee-like’ forms of work, meaning they would need to receive minimum wage.

The ALP will also bring in new laws to make sure workers who do the same job are paid the same if they are employed directly or through labour hire firms. 

And pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts designed to stop workers talking about their pay-packets will be banned.

What Australia’s new PM promised in his victory speech

The new PM vowed to be a leader more focused on women’s empowerment, after five male Liberal Party MPs in Melbourne and Sydney – Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Tim Wilson, Dave Sharma, Trent Zimmerman and Jason Falinski – lost to female climate independents.

‘Together, we can make equal opportunity for women a national, economic and social priority,’ Mr Albanese said.

The Labor leader is also vowing to have indigenous Australians recognised in the Constitution under incoming indigenous affairs minister Linda Burney – the first Aboriginal woman elected to federal Parliament’s House of Representatives.

‘Together, we can embrace the Uluru statement from the heart,’ he said.

‘All of us ought to be proud that amongst our great, multicultural society, we count the oldest, living, continuous culture in the world.’

With inflation in the year to March surging by 5.1 per cent – more than double the 2.4 per cent increase in the wage price index – Mr Albanese doubled down on his call for the Fair Work Commission to give minimum wage earners a pay rise in line with inflation.

‘Together, we can as a country, say that all of us – if the Fair Work Commission don’t cut the wage of minimum-wage workers – we can say, ‘Well we welcome that – absolutely’.’

Treasury is expecting Australia’s gross government debt to surpass the $1 trillion mark in 2023-24 for the first time ever, and make up 44.6 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product – a level unseen since the 1950s after the war.

Without a clear majority yet – having just 73 seats confirmed on election night out of 151 electorates in the House of Representatives – Labor would need to keep its election promises to stand a chance of being re-elected in 2025.

Cost-of-living pressures are set to intensify in the coming year as the Reserve Bank of Australia prepares to raise interest rates, possibly seven more times.

The RBA forecasts an inflation rate of six per cent by the end of 2022 – a level well above its two to three per cent target which makes government spending an issue if handouts to Australians helps drive up inflation.

While using the rhetoric of helping the disadvantaged, Labor triumphed in wealthy inner-city seats where climate change is the bigger issue, with Mr Albanese winning Boothby in Adelaide at an election for the first time since 1946.

The ALP also won, for the first time ever, the Melbourne inner-east seat of Higgins, previously held by former treasurer Peter Costello and Liberal prime ministers Harold Holt and John Gorton.

Labor also won back the richer, inner-city seats of Reid in Sydney, Brisbane, Chisholm in Melbourne and Swan in Perth, which means it has to satisfy its growing middle class support base.