ANTHONY ALBANESE

Labor
23 May 2022 — present 1 year, 301 days

Anthony Albanese became Australia’s 31st Prime Minister when the Labor Party won office, replacing the Liberal-National Party Coalition government led by Scott Morrison.

Born

2 March 1963
Sydney, New South Wales

Partner

Jodie Haydon

Party

Australian Labor Party

Photo: Fairfax

Labor
23 May 2022 — present 1 year, 301 days

About

Anthony Albanese comes to the prime ministership determined to achieve things for the sort of people that he grew up with, ‘the sort of people that need Labor governments.’ Responding directly to the outcome of Federal Election 2022, which saw a record number of independents elected, Albanese has also pledged to bring Australians together and to lead a government ‘worthy of the people of Australia.’

Anthony Albanese takes a selfie with a constituent.

Photo: AAP

Albanese jokes that he is a product of three great faiths: the Catholic Church, the Labor Party and the South Sydney Rugby League Club. As a nine year old boy he accompanied his mother and grandparents handing out how to votes for Gough Whitlam in 1972. As a teenager he joined the Labor Party and was a student activist while studying economics at Sydney University. Albanese was Assistant Secretary of NSW Labor in his mid-twenties, and won the seat of Grayndler in 1996.

He rose to prominence in the Beazley and Crean shadow ministries and became Minister for Transport and Infrastructure in the Rudd government following the 2007 election. After the 2010 election, and the resulting hung parliament, Albanese was Leader in the House of Representatives in Julia Gillard’s government and played a key role in managing relationships with the crossbenchers to get legislation passed. Albanese became Deputy Prime Minister in the short-lived second Rudd government and in 2013 ran for the Labor leadership, losing to Bill Shorten. After consecutive election losses in 2016 and 2019, Albanese was elected leader of the Labor Party.   

Albanese served a long parliamentary apprenticeship before his ascension to the prime ministership, many more years than most of his recent predecessors. He was criticised during the election campaign for adopting a ‘small target’ strategy but, acutely aware of past election losses, responded that ‘one of my Labor principles is for Labor to win elections.’

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