Albanese's class of 2025 tightens prime minister's grip on Labor Party
Many in the current ministry were supported by Albanese on their way up, such as Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy and Communications Minister Anika Wells, Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain and Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale.
Many of the new MPs have similar ties to the PM, such as former Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White, who has been appointed assistant minister for women, Anne Urquhart, who Albanese encouraged to quit her position in the Senate to run for the Tasmanian seat of Braddon, and Rowan Holzberger, who was elected in the Queensland seat of Forde.
Albanese also heavily backed the pre-selection of Matt Smith, the former Cairns Taipans basketball player, whose electorate he visited several times during the 2025 campaign.
Smith said the PM's campaign message of centrist policymaking and stability in an uncertain world would be a marker of success.
'Stability is the aim of any government. You set out to deliver what you said, and that was a strength of the Albanese government coming into this election, and then I think was reflected in the results.
'Having played sport for so long, when you've got that clear message and everyone's pulling in the right way, that's when you have success.'
Labor won 12 seats from the Liberals or Liberal National Party in Queensland, three from the Greens and one from ex-Liberal MP Ian Goodenough, who quit the party during the previous term and contested the election as an independent, as well as securing an inaugural victory in the new seat of Bullwinkel in Western Australia.
ANU Australian historian Frank Bongiorno said landslide election wins such as the Menzies government's in 1949 and Bob Hawke's in 1983 have had long-lasting impacts on the political landscape.
Bongiorno said John Howard's big win in 1996, when the Coalition gained 26 seats, launched a number of significant careers such as those of Warren Entsch, Joe Hockey, Sharman Stone, Danna Vale, Joanna Gash and Jackie Kelly and established a new demographic target for the Coalition in the mortgage belts of Howard battlers.
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'It brought some very, very significant women into the parliament and also, I think, crafted that idea of western Sydney being very critical,' he said.
However, Bongiorno said the shock results in formerly safe Labor seats of Bean in the ACT and Fremantle in Western Australia, which the government won by razor-thin margins, showed the unpredictability of elections given the collapse in primary votes of major parties.
'Things have changed in terms of how votes translate into seats and majorities these days. It's a very different world even from 1996,' he said.
'So we're dealing obviously with a really significant number of MPs who, even if they've got what look like reasonably solid margins, are going to have to work very hard to protect them because the idea of the traditional safe seat does seem to be in decline.'
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Courier-Mail
27 minutes ago
- Courier-Mail
Australia deploying plane, ADF personnel to Europe in NATO pledge
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Perth Now
38 minutes ago
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The Advertiser
an hour ago
- The Advertiser
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Australia is standing firm on defence spending targets despite European nations vowing to rapidly ratchet up expenditure under pressure from US President Donald Trump. On the sidelines of the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia would decide its own spending levels to meet its own military needs. That risks drawing a rebuke from Mr Trump, who made clear he expects allies to drastically step up to reduce their reliance on the US. NATO countries, of which Australia is not a member, agreed to increase defence spending targets to five per cent of GDP. However, Spain refused prompting Mr Trump to threaten to punish the Iberian nation with a tougher trade deal. "You know what we're going to do? We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal and we're going to make them pay twice as much," he said. Australia is also seeking to negotiate a reprieve from tariffs imposed by the US on imports, including a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium. But Mr Marles maintained Australia would stick with its own defence spending process, which will see the nation's share increase from two to 2.3 per cent by 2033/34. "Look, obviously, a very significant decision has been made here in relation to European defence spending, and that is fundamentally a matter for NATO," he said. "We've gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape, assessing the threats that exist there, and the kind of defence force we need to build in order to meet those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and then to resource that. "And what that has seen is the biggest peacetime increase in Australian Defence spending. "Now that is a story which is, which is understood here and we'll continue to assess what our needs are going forward. And as our prime minister has said, we will resource that." Mr Marles did not speak directly with Mr Trump, nor US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite intensive efforts by government officials to tee up a first face-to-face meeting of an Australian minister with the US president. The deputy prime minister did however meet with Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as Australia reaffirmed its support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Mr Marles announced Australia would deploy an RAAF Wedgetail surveillance aircraft to Poland, along with 100 defence force personnel, to help provide visibility for key humanitarian and military supply routes into Ukraine. The aircraft will be deployed for three months, concluding in November, and follows an earlier six-month deployment which was highly valued by the Ukrainians. "It is a really important capability," Mr Marles said. "We are one of the few countries which operates it. And so, when I was in Ukraine in April of last year, it was really evident to me that this is a capability that would be much desired again." Australia announced new financial sanctions and travel bans on 37 individuals and seven financial entities involved in Russia's defence, energy, transport, insurance, electronics and finance sectors, as well as "promulgators of Russian disinformation and propaganda". Mr Marles also signed an agreement with the NATO Support and Procurement Organisation, increasing co-operation in non-combat activities including logistics and capability acquisition. with Reuters Australia is standing firm on defence spending targets despite European nations vowing to rapidly ratchet up expenditure under pressure from US President Donald Trump. On the sidelines of the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia would decide its own spending levels to meet its own military needs. That risks drawing a rebuke from Mr Trump, who made clear he expects allies to drastically step up to reduce their reliance on the US. NATO countries, of which Australia is not a member, agreed to increase defence spending targets to five per cent of GDP. However, Spain refused prompting Mr Trump to threaten to punish the Iberian nation with a tougher trade deal. "You know what we're going to do? We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal and we're going to make them pay twice as much," he said. Australia is also seeking to negotiate a reprieve from tariffs imposed by the US on imports, including a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium. But Mr Marles maintained Australia would stick with its own defence spending process, which will see the nation's share increase from two to 2.3 per cent by 2033/34. "Look, obviously, a very significant decision has been made here in relation to European defence spending, and that is fundamentally a matter for NATO," he said. "We've gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape, assessing the threats that exist there, and the kind of defence force we need to build in order to meet those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and then to resource that. "And what that has seen is the biggest peacetime increase in Australian Defence spending. "Now that is a story which is, which is understood here and we'll continue to assess what our needs are going forward. And as our prime minister has said, we will resource that." Mr Marles did not speak directly with Mr Trump, nor US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite intensive efforts by government officials to tee up a first face-to-face meeting of an Australian minister with the US president. The deputy prime minister did however meet with Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as Australia reaffirmed its support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Mr Marles announced Australia would deploy an RAAF Wedgetail surveillance aircraft to Poland, along with 100 defence force personnel, to help provide visibility for key humanitarian and military supply routes into Ukraine. The aircraft will be deployed for three months, concluding in November, and follows an earlier six-month deployment which was highly valued by the Ukrainians. "It is a really important capability," Mr Marles said. "We are one of the few countries which operates it. And so, when I was in Ukraine in April of last year, it was really evident to me that this is a capability that would be much desired again." Australia announced new financial sanctions and travel bans on 37 individuals and seven financial entities involved in Russia's defence, energy, transport, insurance, electronics and finance sectors, as well as "promulgators of Russian disinformation and propaganda". Mr Marles also signed an agreement with the NATO Support and Procurement Organisation, increasing co-operation in non-combat activities including logistics and capability acquisition. with Reuters Australia is standing firm on defence spending targets despite European nations vowing to rapidly ratchet up expenditure under pressure from US President Donald Trump. On the sidelines of the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia would decide its own spending levels to meet its own military needs. That risks drawing a rebuke from Mr Trump, who made clear he expects allies to drastically step up to reduce their reliance on the US. NATO countries, of which Australia is not a member, agreed to increase defence spending targets to five per cent of GDP. However, Spain refused prompting Mr Trump to threaten to punish the Iberian nation with a tougher trade deal. "You know what we're going to do? We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal and we're going to make them pay twice as much," he said. Australia is also seeking to negotiate a reprieve from tariffs imposed by the US on imports, including a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium. But Mr Marles maintained Australia would stick with its own defence spending process, which will see the nation's share increase from two to 2.3 per cent by 2033/34. "Look, obviously, a very significant decision has been made here in relation to European defence spending, and that is fundamentally a matter for NATO," he said. "We've gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape, assessing the threats that exist there, and the kind of defence force we need to build in order to meet those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and then to resource that. "And what that has seen is the biggest peacetime increase in Australian Defence spending. "Now that is a story which is, which is understood here and we'll continue to assess what our needs are going forward. And as our prime minister has said, we will resource that." Mr Marles did not speak directly with Mr Trump, nor US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite intensive efforts by government officials to tee up a first face-to-face meeting of an Australian minister with the US president. The deputy prime minister did however meet with Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as Australia reaffirmed its support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Mr Marles announced Australia would deploy an RAAF Wedgetail surveillance aircraft to Poland, along with 100 defence force personnel, to help provide visibility for key humanitarian and military supply routes into Ukraine. The aircraft will be deployed for three months, concluding in November, and follows an earlier six-month deployment which was highly valued by the Ukrainians. "It is a really important capability," Mr Marles said. "We are one of the few countries which operates it. And so, when I was in Ukraine in April of last year, it was really evident to me that this is a capability that would be much desired again." Australia announced new financial sanctions and travel bans on 37 individuals and seven financial entities involved in Russia's defence, energy, transport, insurance, electronics and finance sectors, as well as "promulgators of Russian disinformation and propaganda". Mr Marles also signed an agreement with the NATO Support and Procurement Organisation, increasing co-operation in non-combat activities including logistics and capability acquisition. with Reuters Australia is standing firm on defence spending targets despite European nations vowing to rapidly ratchet up expenditure under pressure from US President Donald Trump. On the sidelines of the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia would decide its own spending levels to meet its own military needs. That risks drawing a rebuke from Mr Trump, who made clear he expects allies to drastically step up to reduce their reliance on the US. NATO countries, of which Australia is not a member, agreed to increase defence spending targets to five per cent of GDP. However, Spain refused prompting Mr Trump to threaten to punish the Iberian nation with a tougher trade deal. "You know what we're going to do? We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal and we're going to make them pay twice as much," he said. Australia is also seeking to negotiate a reprieve from tariffs imposed by the US on imports, including a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium. But Mr Marles maintained Australia would stick with its own defence spending process, which will see the nation's share increase from two to 2.3 per cent by 2033/34. "Look, obviously, a very significant decision has been made here in relation to European defence spending, and that is fundamentally a matter for NATO," he said. "We've gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape, assessing the threats that exist there, and the kind of defence force we need to build in order to meet those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and then to resource that. "And what that has seen is the biggest peacetime increase in Australian Defence spending. "Now that is a story which is, which is understood here and we'll continue to assess what our needs are going forward. And as our prime minister has said, we will resource that." Mr Marles did not speak directly with Mr Trump, nor US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite intensive efforts by government officials to tee up a first face-to-face meeting of an Australian minister with the US president. The deputy prime minister did however meet with Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as Australia reaffirmed its support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Mr Marles announced Australia would deploy an RAAF Wedgetail surveillance aircraft to Poland, along with 100 defence force personnel, to help provide visibility for key humanitarian and military supply routes into Ukraine. The aircraft will be deployed for three months, concluding in November, and follows an earlier six-month deployment which was highly valued by the Ukrainians. "It is a really important capability," Mr Marles said. "We are one of the few countries which operates it. And so, when I was in Ukraine in April of last year, it was really evident to me that this is a capability that would be much desired again." Australia announced new financial sanctions and travel bans on 37 individuals and seven financial entities involved in Russia's defence, energy, transport, insurance, electronics and finance sectors, as well as "promulgators of Russian disinformation and propaganda". Mr Marles also signed an agreement with the NATO Support and Procurement Organisation, increasing co-operation in non-combat activities including logistics and capability acquisition. with Reuters
