With its commitment to a better future for Australia, including boosting climate change response, the Labour Party has many opportunities to transform Australia into a “renewable energy superpower”.
Albanese’s Labour Party secured 75 seats in the lower house and will likely hold up to 77 seats, enough to form a new government. The new government in Australia will have to deal with a series of challenges that have arisen over the past three years, notably the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic causing a high increase in living costs, inflation and interest rates as well as a record level of national debt.
Australia's official data showed that its annual inflation rate surged to 5.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, the highest level since 2001. Australia's CPI has recorded the largest quarterly and annual increase since the country introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The country needs new reforms to create an impetus for quick recovery and development following a difficult period due to COVID-19 pandemic. Australia is also divided over many social issues such as gender equality.
Promoting capital policies is a traditional strength of the Labour Party such as social security and climate change adaptation. The Labour Party has committed to net zero in Australia by 2050 but with a more ambitious emissions reduction target of 43 percent in 2030. Key measures to achieve this include promoting renewable energy, with a focus on pledging to spend 20 billion AUD (14 billion USD) on renovating and modernising the national electricity system and encouraging people to use electric cars.
Regarding social security, the Labour Party announced its support for a minimum wage rise to keep up with inflation, allocating nearly 1 billion AUD (700 million USD) to support people to access family health care services and reducing childcare fees and electricity bills to help ease the financial pressure on households. Effective and quality budget investment, such as increasing investment in education and skills training to increase productivity and develop transport and telecommunications infrastructure are also among the priorities as well as the development of affordable housing projects, improvements in aged care services and promotion of gender equality.
The Labour Party was committed to carrying out a programme to support people to own houses through a policy in which the government would contribute up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of a new home and up to 30 per cent of the purchase price for an existing home. Strengthening the resilience and self-reliance of the national economy, especially related to global supply chains, as well as focusing on solving the difficulties that people are facing are important goals of the upcoming new government in Australia.
Australia’s Labour Party is committed to pursuing a stronger foreign policy and deepening regional and global partnerships. As planned, right after the swearing-in ceremony, Prime Minister Albanese will make his first foreign trip to Tokyo, Japan to attend a meeting of the quadrilateral security dialogue (Quad) which consists of the US, Japan, India and Australia.
Specific initiatives by the Labour Party-led government are the increase of foreign aid at about 525 million AUD to the Pacific island nations and Timor Leste. The Labour Party also announced a series of new cooperation initiatives with Southeast Asia such as the appointment of a special envoy as a senior ambassador to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its members countries towards developing stronger relations.
The new government will also increase official foreign aid to Southeast Asia to 470 million AUD and develop an ASEAN economic strategy.
In addition, the Labour Party plans to phase out the agricultural visa programme with ASEAN countries that was applied by the previous government and instead form a new type of agricultural visa under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
The Labour Party leader announced that the new government would introduce a number of policy changes, in particular those related to climate change and enhancing Australia’s engagement with the world in this area.
Following the Quad’s meeting, Albanese is expected to have a meeting with state leaders in Australia to discuss and agree on how to work together while planning to talk with representatives of trade unions, owners and other related organisations in the coming months.
Labour Party leaders will focus on five basic areas of investment: renovating the babysitting service system, improving access to higher education, strengthening infrastructure, domestic production and clean energy initiatives. The new government aims to help Australia overcome its current difficulties and realise the goal of becoming a renewable energy superpower.
