Anthony Albanese

Anthony Norman Albanese ( /ˌælbəˈniːzi/ AL-bə-NEEZ-ee or /ˈælbəniːz/ AL-bə-neez; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parliament (MP) for the division of Grayndler since 1996. Albanese previously served as the 15th deputy prime minister under the second Rudd government in 2013. He held various ministerial positions from 2007 to 2013 in the governments of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

Albanese was born in Sydney to an Italian father and an Irish-Australian mother, who raised him as a single parent. Albanese attended St Mary's Cathedral College and studied economics at the University of Sydney. As a student, he joined the Labor Party and later worked as a party official and research officer before entering Parliament.

Albanese was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1996 election, winning the seat of Grayndler in New South Wales. He was first appointed to the shadow cabinet in 2001 by Simon Crean and went on to serve in a number of roles, eventually becoming Manager of Opposition Business in 2006. After Labor's victory in the 2007 election, Albanese was appointed Leader of the House, and was also made Minister for Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. In the subsequent leadership tensions between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard from 2010 to 2013, Albanese was publicly critical of the conduct of both, calling for party unity. After supporting Rudd in the final leadership ballot between the two in June 2013, Albanese was elected the deputy leader of the Labor Party and sworn in as deputy prime minister the following day, a position he held for less than three months, as Labor was defeated at the 2013 election.

Rudd retired from politics, so Albanese stood against Bill Shorten in the October 2013 Australian Labor Party leadership election. Although Albanese won a large majority of the membership, Shorten won more heavily among Labor MPs and became leader. Shorten subsequently appointed Albanese to his Shadow Cabinet. After Labor's surprise defeat in the 2019 election, Shorten resigned as leader, with Albanese becoming the only person nominated in the leadership election to replace him; he was subsequently elected unopposed as leader of the Labor Party, becoming Leader of the Opposition.

In the 2022 election, Albanese led his party to victory against Scott Morrison's Liberal-National Coalition. He was sworn in on 23 May 2022. Albanese's first acts as prime minister included proposing a change to the Constitution to include an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, updating Australia's climate targets in an effort to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, and supporting an increase to the national minimum wage. His government legislated a national anti-corruption commission, made major changes to Australian labour law and established the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme. In foreign policy, Albanese pledged further logistical support to Ukraine to assist with the Russo-Ukrainian war, attempted to strengthen relations in the Pacific region, and held several high-level discussions with Chinese president Xi Jinping, overseeing an easing of tensions between the countries and leading to easing of trade restrictions put by China on Australia. He also oversaw the official commencement of the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.