Anthony Albanese defeated a wave of anti-Donald Trump sentiment to win a second term as Australian prime minister, three months after polls showed he was facing a humiliation.
Early election results on Saturday suggest Albanys will be Australia's prime minister to win back-to-back victory in more than 20 years and the first labor leader to achieve the feat since Bob Hawke in 1990.
Broadcasting firm ABC called labor victory early in the Earl, and the opposition Liberals failed to achieve the swing needed to cancel the competitors.
Labour needs 76 seats to form a government. The seats it will win are not known, but Labor members celebrate in Sydney as the party gets closer to the majority.
During the campaign, support for liberals collapsed. Their platforms — including Trump-like proposals such as plans to cut government spending and public sector work and attacks on the “wake up” agenda — failed to attract the appeal of voters repelled by the U.S. president’s tariff agenda and active foreign policy.
Liberal leader Peter Dutton himself is under serious threat in Dickson, Queensland, where his Labor rival is statistically leading.
"One factor that we can all recognize is the Trump factor," said Liberal Senator and spokesman James Patterson, who described Trump's impact on the game as "important."
Australia's poll comes days after voters returned Canadian Liberal Party to the government, mainly due to Trump's intervention. Liberals were far ahead in the Conservatives, threatening to annex the country before Trump mocked Canada and said he would impose tariffs on it.
Irene Kontominas, who voted in the marginal seats outside Sydney and in the Pro-Labor Fowler, said Trump played a role in her vote. But she also believes that Dutton failed to propose a convincing case to dump the labor.
"That's not enough. You know the devil is better," she said.
Albanese, who broadcast live from Melbourne Cricket Ground for a day, said the prospect of winning back to back is the "Holy Grail". Later, he appeared at a working class social club in western Sydney to declare his victory.
The elections fought mostly in the suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney, where dissatisfied voters struggled with rising rents and mortgages, coupled with high electricity, food and petrol prices, which have deteriorated on both major parties.
In Sydney's western part, a traditional workforce heartland, where 10% of Australia's population lives, the Liberal Party had hoped to gain a huge stance.
But Sajedul Hasan, an accountant in Fowler, said Dutton proposed to force voter sentiment to “great changes” if the region is close to central Sydney and many people working from home.
He added that Dutton was not aware of the cost of food during the TV debate, too, hurt his opportunity. "How do you represent us if you don't know the price of eggs?" Hassan asked.