(2 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sydney, Australia – 3 May 2025
1. Polls open at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, people voting, men in bathing suits, people with dogs
STORYLINE:
Polls opened in the Australian general election on Saturday morning as the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton both claimed to be the underdog.
Voters at Sydney’s Bondi Beach were seen casting their ballots, some in bathing suits and others accompanied by their dogs.
Albanese, who leads the centre-left Labor Party, visited the eastern states of Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania on Friday. Dutton, who leads an alliance of conservatives parties called the Liberal-National Coalition, campaigned in the states of South Australia and Western Australia.
Albanese noted an Australian prime minister had not led a party to consecutive election victories since John Howard, a conservative, in 2004. Howard’s 11-year reign ended in 2007, when he lost his own seat.
Dutton was confident undecided voters would back his coalition. In Australia, where voting is compulsory, many who don’t have strong preferences still turn out to vote to avoid a fine, often not picking a candidate until election day.
Both campaigns have focused on Australia’s changing demographics. The election is the first in Australia in which Baby Boomers, born between the end of World War II and 1964, are outnumbered by younger voters.
Both campaigns promised policies to help first-home buyers buy into a property market that is too expensive for many.
A major point of difference is energy. The opposition has promised to build seven government-funded nuclear power plants across Australia that would begin generating electricity from 2035.
Gas-fired electricity would fill the gap between aging coal-fired plants closing and nuclear generators taking their place.
Labor plans to have 82% of Australia’s energy grid powered by renewables including solar and wind turbines by 2030 and to rely less on gas.
The party has warned that Dutton’s coalition would make massive cuts to services to pay for its nuclear ambitions.
Labor has accused the coalition of mimicking U.S. President Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency by promising to slash more than one in five federal public sector jobs.
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