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Published : 03 May 2025, 10:39 PM
Australia's Anthony Albanese, who claimed a historic second term as prime minister on Saturday, is a pragmatic leader who revived his campaign by offering stability against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's volatile diplomacy.
Albanese's centre-left Labor government had been trailing in polls to the conservative Liberal-National coalition as recently as Feb, but then bounced back as voters grew increasingly alarmed by Trump's tariff threats and sought safe ground.
His support only grew as Labor drew comparisons between their opponents and the US president. "We do not seek our inspiration from overseas. We find it right here in our values and in our people," Albanese said in his victory speech.
When Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on Australian exports last month, Albanese said the move was "not the act of a friend". He said he would not compromise with US trade negotiators over Australia's efforts to lower medicine prices for families, and new social media laws to protect children.
"He gave the message, 'Don't worry, Australia'," independent political analyst Simon Jackman said.
During his first term in office, Albanese had pulled Australia closer to the US, its main security ally, committing A$368 billion ($232 billion) to their AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership with Britain.
He also restarted dialogue with China after a diplomatic freeze and trade boycott by Beijing, saying stabilising ties with Australia's biggest customer was in the national interest.
"China is the major power in the region, which is seeking to increase its influence. But the relationship is complex as well, because China is our major trading partner," Albanese said in a televised election debate last week, when asked if Beijing was a threat.
Australia's response was to invest in both defence and diplomacy, he added.
TOUGH CHILDHOOD
Friends and supporters say Albanese, 62, is motivated by a mix of pragmatism and concern for social justice formed during a tough childhood - he was brought up in public housing by a single mother on a disability pension.
"There is a lovely softness to him. I have seen him cry," said Labor parliamentarian Linda Burney, a long-time neighbour in inner Sydney, who attributed her entry into politics to encouragement from the prime minister.
"He has just been a rock in my life," added Burney, who became the first Indigenous person elected to the parliament of New South Wales in 2003, before going on to be Minister for Indigenous Australians in federal parliament.
"Kindness isn't weakness... I've been capable of making tough decisions," Albanese said in a televised election debate in April.
In his victory speech on Saturday, Albanese said Australians had voted for "the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need".
In the 2022 campaign that first won Albanese the prime minister's office after nine years of conservative rule, Labor highlighted his working-class credentials.
The first in his family to attend university, "Albo" studied economics and engaged in student politics.
By 2024, media headlines focused on his A$4 million ($2.5 million) purchase of an oceanfront house in New South Wales, amid a housing affordability crisis that became a dominant theme of the 2025 election.
Despite delivering early on core promises to boost childcare funding and lift wages of low-income workers, Albanese was hampered as global inflation fuelled by the war in Ukraine drove up energy prices and interest rates, said Frank Bongiorno, a professor of history at the Australian National University.
Burney, who sat in cabinet meetings, said Albanese worked with his team to craft household relief measures such as energy bill rebates that were "just crucial in terms of seeing Australia through very difficult times".
As prime minister, Albanese staked significant political capital on improving the position of Australia's Indigenous peoples.
He pushed ahead with a national referendum in 2023 seeking to recognise them in the constitution, despite opposition from the conservative Liberal-National coalition.
Albanese said he accepted responsibility after more than 60 percent of Australians voted "No" in that plebiscite.
"That was an enormously damaging episode to the government," said Bongiorno, who has written a book on the Labor Party.
Labor's 2025 election promises feature tax cuts, help for young home buyers and a centrepiece pledge of A$8.5 billion more for healthcare under a revitalised Medicare programme.
Albanese's policy themes owe a debt to Bob Hawke, Labor's longest-serving prime minister, in whose reformist government he worked as a research officer, after being elected president of the party's youth wing at 22.
Hawke launched the universal health scheme Medicare and took steps towards a treaty with Indigenous people but ultimately failed to deliver it.
On election night, supporters cheered the loudest when Albanese pulled out a Medicare card from his pocket, after pledging billions in funding to expand the availability of subsidised doctor visits.
