Voting has started across Australia’s heavily-populated eastern coast in the 2025 election, with opinion polls indicating that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on track to become the first leader to win consecutive ballots in more than two decades.
Some of Australia’s largest states began voting at 8 a.m. local time, including New South Wales, Victoria and the northeastern state of Queensland. South Australia and the Northern Territory will kick off casting their ballots half an hour later, followed by Western Australia.
Albanese’s center-left Labor government is fighting for a second term against opposition leader Peter Dutton, a former policeman, in a campaign which has focused heavily on cost-of-living issues following three years of persistent inflation, high interest rates and a national housing crisis.
However, the campaign has been overshadowed by US President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda, with the American leader announcing his “reciprocal” imposts in early April just as both major parties began making their pitch to voters.
