Australia’s government strengthens grip with by-election win
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The victory bolsters Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s parliamentary majority and confirms his government’s popularity.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MELBOURNE – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government has won a historic victory at a by-election in the state of Victoria, becoming the country’s first in more than 100 years to take a district off the opposition outside a national vote.
The ruling Labor Party’s candidate, Ms Mary Doyle, won the district of Aston in eastern Melbourne, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) projections.
It reported that Liberal candidate Roshena Campbell called Ms Doyle on Saturday evening to concede defeat, while Mr Albanese congratulated Ms Doyle in a phone call.
ABC had projected a swing towards Labor of about 6 per cent.
On Sunday, Ms Doyle promised to hit the ground running in an interview with Australian broadcaster SBS News.
“I promise to every single one of you, whether you voted for me or not, I will always listen,” the breast cancer survivor and former unionist said. “I will always do the best I can for this area and I will always put locals first.”
Following the Aston win, Mr Albanese’s government holds 78 districts in the 151-member House of Representatives.
The result comes a week after Labor won an election in New South Wales, the most populous state, meaning the centre-left now controls all seven state and territorial governments on Australia’s mainland.
Only the southern island state of Tasmania has a centre-right government.
A by-election is a vote to fill a vacancy caused by the departure of a lawmaker outside a general election, with Saturday’s ballot triggered by former minister Alan Tudge’s resignation from Parliament.
No government has won a seat off an opposition party at a by-election since 1920, and ahead of the vote, it was expected that the centre-right Liberal Party would retain the district, albeit narrowly.
The loss is likely to spark questions about the performance of Liberal Party leader and former defence minister Peter Dutton after less than one year in the role.
He has generally stuck to the script of an opposition leader, regularly rejecting government policies, including increased action on climate change.
ABC said the result is considered a devastating blow for his party, which now holds only three suburban Melbourne seats. It added that former Liberal strategist Tony Barry called the result “cataclysmically bad” for the party.
It also noted that former Labor strategist Kos Samaras said the Chinese community in Aston may have ditched the Liberals because of how unwelcome the coalition government had made many of them feel in recent years.
On Sunday, Mr Dutton took responsibility for the loss, but also vowed to fight on.
“I can tell you it makes me more determined to rebuild this party and be in a winning position by 2025,” he told ABC’s Insiders programme. “Now, the question is how we rebuild from here, the policies that we have, the brand rebuilding that we need to do in Victoria, and it is a very significant issue for us.” BLOOMBERG
