Labor takes small-target strategy as it retains lead ahead of election

Opposition party unlikely to set Australia on radically different path as it eyes polls victory

- Jonathan Pearlman

Australia’s Labor Party is on track to defeat the ruling Liberal-National Coalition in next week’s election and celebrate the first change of government in almost a decade, but the fresh leadership is unlikely to mark a radical change of direction for the country.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has presented a risk-averse agenda, partly because the party lost the last election in 2019 after proposing ambitious, nation-changing policies.

A Labor government would adopt stronger climate targets and boost spending on health and education, but has signalled that it will stick with several of the coalition’s major policies, including increased defence spending, fuel subsidies and income tax cuts.

Mr Albanese, who entered Parliament in 1996, comes from the party’s left-wing faction but has presented himself as a risk-averse, pro-market gradualist. Ahead of the May 21 election, he has described himself as a “safe change”.

Asked this week about his plans for his first 100 days in office, a period in which incoming Australian leaders often seek to define themselves, Mr Albanese, 59, laid out no pressing proposals or grand national vision.