Australia will hold elections on May 21 as incumbent prime minister Scott Morrison goes head-to-head with Labour leader, Anthony Albanese. The electoral battle between Morrison and Albanese will concentrate on rising living costs, war in Ukraine and COVID-related supply chain disruptions and China.
The cost of living and home buying is likely to become key electoral issues and the former is being buoyed after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced that it is lifting its official cash rate to 0.35% from a record low of 0.1% to contain rising inflation. The announcement, made by the central bank head Phillip Lowe, has put the pressure on Morrison, who according to polls and surveys undertaken in April was lagging behind the Labour candidate Albanese.
The rise will result in millions of homeowners in Australia paying higher mortgages. Both leaders are targeting the property market with Morrison taking up the 2020-launched “Home Guarantee” scheme against Albanese’s new “Help to Buy” scheme. The Labour Party’s scheme will ensure that if elected the party will contribute funds to homebuyers – 40% in case of a new home, and 30% in case of an existing home – under the shared equity project.
Albanese also promised that if elected his government will cut the price of medicines for general patients under a new scheme named Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The opposition leader also said that if elected he will launch a $15bn national reconstruction fund which will aim to make more things in Australia. Albanese’s Labour Party vows to boost onshore manufacturing capability and supply chain resilience, according to a report by news agency the Guardian Australia.
The poll conducted by the think-tank, the Australia Institute, showed that 53% of respondents feel that Australian PM Morrison is “all announcement no delivery” while 42% of the respondents believe that the “Labour has no plan for Australia’s economy, no plan to create jobs and no plan for cost of living relief for Australians”.
Australia’s closely-fought election campaign is also focusing on the nation’s foreign-policy as the opposition criticised the Morrison government of not being able to dissuade Solomon Islands from signing a security pact with China. Albanese said that the Labour Party will begin an annual visa lottery offering permanent residency to 3,000 Pacific Islanders in a bid to create trust between Australia and the Pacific island-nations.
(with inputs from abc.au, the Guardian Australia, Bloomberg and Reuters)
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