Counting begins in Australian election focused on energy and inflation

Rod McGuirk, Associated Press

Vote counting has begun in Australia’s general election after polling stations closed across the country.

Counting is well under way in the east, where polls closed two hours earlier than in the west.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his rival Peter Dutton began campaigning on Saturday in the electorally crucial city of Melbourne. Mr Albanese later returned home to Sydney and Mr Dutton to his home city of Brisbane to vote.

Mr Albanese was accompanied by his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, and his adult son Nathan as he was welcomed by supporters at the polling station in his electoral division.

Mr Dutton arrived with his wife, Kirilly Dutton, and his adult children, Rebecca, Tom and Harry, to vote in his own constituency.

Leaders

The leaders will address party gatherings in Sydney and Brisbane later as the Australian Electoral Commission tallies votes. Leaders usually concede defeat and claim victory on the day of the election.

Energy policy and inflation have been major issues in the campaign, with both sides agreeing the country faces a cost-of-living crisis.

Mr Dutton’s conservative Liberal Party blames government waste for fuelling inflation and increasing interest rates, and has pledged to axe more than one in five public service jobs to reduce government spending.

While both say the country should reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, Mr Dutton argues that relying on more nuclear power instead of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind turbines would deliver less expensive electricity.

Labour has branded the opposition leader “Doge-y Dutton” and accused his party of mimicking US President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency.

Labour argues Mr Dutton’s administration would slash services to pay for its nuclear ambitions.

Division

“We’ve seen the attempt to run American-style politics here of division and pitting Australians against each other and I think that’s not the Australian way,” Mr Albanese said.

He also noted that his government had improved relations with China, which removed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers that had cost Australian exporters 20 billion Australian dollars a year since Labour came to power in 2022.

Mr Dutton wants to become the first political leader to oust a first-term government since 1931, when Australians were reeling from the Great Depression.

Asked if he believed his conservative coalition could win the election, Mr Dutton told reporters in Melbourne: “Absolutely, I do.”

“I’m confident that Australians have seen through a bad government and I’m confident that Australians can’t afford three more years of what they’ve experienced and there are a lot of families who are really doing it very tough at the moment,” Mr Dutton told reporters after voting at a Brisbane school.

Mr Albanese was asked about Labour’s chances of securing a second three-year term.

“We take absolutely nothing for granted until the results are in,” Mr Albanese said.

If Mr Albanese wins, he will become the first Australian prime minister to win successive elections in 21 years.