Labor Party head Anthony Albanese has emerged victorious in Australia’s federal elections on Saturday, May 21. Morrison’s (conservative) Liberal Party lost more than 12 seats—down to 54 seats, while the Labor Party was able to win at least 72 of the Parliament’s 151 seats, as of this writing. 76 seats are needed to form a government, which would be easy to do with one of the minor parties if the Labor Party does not garner the remaining four seats needed on their own.
In his victory speech, Albanese claimed that he would “end the climate wars,” referring to Morrison’s stated skepticism on climate change, and implement even more rapid decarbonization, which will please the British monarchy and the City of London, who oversee the commonwealth country. Although the Chinese have expressed some hope that an Albanese government would lead to some relief from the hysterically anti-China policies of the Morrison government, Albanese claims the deterioration in relations is China’s fault, and has pledged to train the militaries in the Pacific island nations to prepare for the imagined Chinese aggression in the Solomon Islands. Morrison conceded before all the results were in so that Albanese could represent Australia at the anti-China QUAD Summit in Tokyo on May 24.
Of note, Morrison’s hawkish defense minister, Peter Dutton, tried to paint Albanese as a “manchurian candidate,” saying at a National Press Club event before the election that “There’s no doubt in my mind that the Chinese Communist Party would like to see a change of government at the May 21 election. No question at all.”
Guo Chunmei, associate researcher of the Institute of Southeast Asian and Oceanian Studies in the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), said that “if the Labor Party comes to power, at least in terms of people-to-people diplomacy and social exchanges, it will bring some possibility of a recovery in Sino-Australian relations,” according to The Weekend Australian.
