Millions head to polls in Australia’s general election
Polls opened in Australia's general election on Saturday with high costs of living and a shortage of housing major issues in the campaign.
Voting across the nation the size of three times zones spanning two hours will continue from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. in eastern Australia, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The polls open and close two hours later on the West Coast. Authorities said 8.6 million ballots from Australia's 18.1 million registered voters had already been cast, but not counted, before Saturday since early and postal voting began on April 22.
Australia is among the few countries where voting is compulsory, a system that leans toward creating centrist governments. At the last election in 2022, 90% of eligible voters cast ballots.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's center-left Labor Party is seeking a second three-year term.
His opponent, conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton, wants to become the first political leader to oust a first-term government since 1931, when Australians were reeling from the Great Depression.
The election is taking place against a backdrop of what both sides of politics describe as a cost of living crisis.
Annual inflation peaked at 7.8% a year after Labor was elected in 2022. The central bank's benchmark interest rate rose from a record low 0.1% to 0.35% two weeks before the government changed. The rate has been raised a dozen times since then, peaking at 4.35% in November 2023.
The central bank reduced the inflation rate by a quarter percentage point in February to 4.1% in an indication that the worst of the financial hardship had passed. The rate is widely expected to be cut again at the bank's next board meeting on May 20 due to international economic uncertainty generated by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies.
Housing prices and rents have also soared as builders have gone broke because of inflation absorbing profit margins.
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