Prime Minister No.9

Australia’s ninth prime minister in 15 years has just been elected. It’s been a bit of a revolving door at the Lodge since John Howard was defeated in the 2007 election. We now have Anthony Albanese as our new Prime Minister. Given the pace at which Prime Ministers have churned in recent years, I wonder how long he'll last? Watch this space!

UPDATE: 30 May

The new Labor Government will govern with a razor-thin majority of one seat. However, the talk of this year's election is the rise of the independent Teal movement. Six formerly safe Liberal seats in urban and suburban areas, held by the party and its predecessors for decades, were won by independents (who’ve adopted the colour teal as their distinctive branding), unseating Liberal incumbents, including Treasurer and Deputy Liberal Leader Josh Frydenberg. 

Seats that have progressively fallen to independents in recent years include those previously held by Liberal Prime Ministers such as John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull. Urban voters are clearly turning against the Coalition's polarising right-wing conservatism. It'll be interesting to see how the opposition evolves over the next three years.