The incumbent prime minister, Scott Morrison, pushed Australia to the right and called himself "a bit of a bulldozer.” His Labor challenger, Anthony Albanese, ran as a modest Mr. Fix-It, promising to seek "renewal, not revolution.”
In the end, moderation triumphed. Albanese won Saturday’s election with a campaign that was gaffe-prone and light on policy but promised a more decent form of politics, delivering a stark rejection of Morrison after nearly a decade of conservative leadership in Australia.
It was a combination that carried powerful echoes of U.S. President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. Both Albanese and Biden are political lifers, working-class battlers with decades of experience in government and reputations for pragmatic compromise.