Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called a national election for May 3, seeking a second three-year term for his Labor Party government in a contest set to be dominated by cost-of-living concerns.
Albanese said on Friday that the election would be a choice between his government’s plan to “keep building” and the rival Liberal Party-led coalition’s mooted cuts to government spending.
“What I want is a campaign about policy substance and about hope and optimism for our country,” Albanese told reporters at a news conference.
“I’m optimistic about Australia. That’s one of the big distinctions in this campaign.”
Opinion polls suggest that Labor is running neck-and-neck with the Liberal-National Coalition, led by former police detective Peter Dutton, putting it at risk of becoming the first government to serve just one term since 1931.
After defeating the centre-right Coalition at the 2022 election, Labor has slumped in the polls amid discontent over cost-of-living pressures, including a chronic shortage of affordable housing.
Australia is one of the world’s least affordable housing markets, with the median price-to-income ratio having nearly doubled between 2002 and 2024.
In a Gallup poll carried out last year, more than three-quarters of Australians said they were dissatisfied with the availability of good, affordable housing in their area, a 31-point rise compared with 2020.
Out of 13 countries surveyed, only Turkiye had a higher proportion of people dissatisfied with the housing situation.
“Our regulated housing sector – limited development in the cities, rigid planning approval from local councils – continues to price Australians, young aspirational people, out of the property market,” Tom Switzer, executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies, a right-leaning think tank, told Al Jazeera.
After taking office, Albanese pledged to oversee the building of 1.2 million new homes by the end of the decade.
But the government’s construction drive has gotten off to a sluggish start, with the Urban Development Institute of Australia estimating that the target is on track to be missed by 400,000 dwellings.
Dutton has proposed spending five billion Australian dollars ($3.15bn) to facilitate the construction of 500,000 new homes, along with a series of measures to ease demand, including cuts to immigration and a two-year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents buying property.
Dutton on Friday said Australia was going “backwards”, accusing Albanese of being fixated on a failed referendum that would have created a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues instead of bread-and-butter concerns.
“I don’t believe that we can simply afford to continue down the current path and that means that we can’t afford three more years of Labor,” he said.
“Labor’s economic policies and wasteful spending have increased the cost of living for everyday Australians.”
Other issues set to play a prominent role in the campaign include healthcare, immigration, energy and climate change.
While Albanese has pledged large investments in green manufacturing and solar and wind power, Dutton has proposed shifting the country’s energy mix towards nuclear power by constructing seven nuclear power plants and two small modular reactors.
Although Labor or the Coalition are all but guaranteed to win the biggest share of the vote, polling suggests that support for the main parties is at record lows, raising the possibility of a hung parliament.
If neither Labor nor the Coalition secure a majority in the 151-seat House of Representatives, they would need to negotiate with the left-leaning Australian Greens or independents to form a minority government.
Australia last had a minority government in 2010, when Labor’s Julia Gillard solicited the support of the Greens and three independent MPs.
“Labor won 77 seats out of 151 in 2022 and only needs to lose two seats to lose the capacity to form government on their own,” Frank Mols, a senior lecturer at the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, told Al Jazeera.
“That said, the Liberal Party needs to flip 19 seats to form a majority government, which is also a tall order, certainly considering the growing popularity of independents and other minor parties,” Mols said.
“So, if Labor loses majority government, it will be a result of a small natural swing against it, combined with the lack of a compelling ‘grand vision’ that energises voters.”
