Australian elections: Albanese wins second consecutive term, Dutton concedes defeat

Australian Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has won again in today's parliamentary elections, according to projections from public broadcaster ABC.

The election campaign was marked by issues of purchasing power, the environment, and US tariffs.

The news came as a bolt from the blue that Conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton, head of the Liberal Party, had lost his seat in parliament to a Labor candidate, ABC projections show.

The centre-left party will form a government in the next parliament, said Anthony Green, an ABC analyst, after almost 40 percent of the votes were counted.

The Labor Party is leading in 71 constituencies, according to the Australian Electoral Commission's official projection, not far from the 76-seat threshold needed for a majority in the lower house of Parliament.

In contrast, Peter Dutton's coalition leads in 25 constituencies, according to the same source, which has not yet released information for about twenty seats.

Voters were to elect 150 members of the new lower house of Parliament, and to renew about half of the seats in the upper house, the Senate.

Albanese, 62, who has been prime minister since winning parliamentary elections in 2022, has promised to develop renewable energy, fight the housing crisis and provide more funding for the healthcare system.

"The holy grail is to win two consecutive victories and that's what we're aiming for today," Albanese told Channel 7 television ahead of the election.

Polls gave him a slight advantage over Peter Dutton (54), a former police officer in the anti-narcotics brigade, who said he wanted to reduce immigration and fight delinquency.

The election campaign has been rocked from the very beginning by US President Donald Trump's trade offensive. Australia, a long-time US ally, has been hit with a 10% tariff on a large portion of its goods exported to America.

Dutton: It's not our night.

Peter Dutton has conceded defeat in the election, losing his seat in parliament after 24 years.

"It's not our night, as I pointed out, and there are good members and candidates who have lost their seats, their ambitions, and I'm sorry about that," he said.

Dutton admitted that his presidential campaign "wasn't good enough," and added that he had called Albanese and congratulated him on his victory, Reuters reports.