Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is a craft beer afficionado who loves “fighting Tories”, clawing his way to the nation’s highest office from hardscrabble blue-collar beginnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party won a second term in government on Saturday night, dealing a crushing defeat to its conservative rivals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Labor Party lifer, Albanese has roamed the halls of parliament for almost 30 years since he was first elected as a fresh-faced 33-year-old in 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I like fighting Tories. That’s what I do,” was how he succinctly summed up his political mantra in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 62-year-old grew up in a modest government-subsidised flat in Sydney’s inner city, and his blue-collar back story has become something of political legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was raised as the only child of a single mother, who worked as a cleaner before her hands were wracked with rheumatoid arthritis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albanese spent much of his teenage years looking after his mother Maryanne, crediting his difficult upbringing as the inspiration for a career in progressive politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He started working for the Labor Party soon after graduating from the University of Sydney with a degree in economics in 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Known simply as “Albo” to friends and foes alike, Albanese has made much of his ability to connect with middle Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A favourite gimmick is helming the turntable at parties and campaign events under the alias “DJ Albo”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To lighten up his regular appearances on Australian breakfast television, Albanese often calls on his shaggy cavoodle “Toto”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the height of his popularity in 2022, a popular Sydney brewery put Albanese’s grinning face on the side of its “Albo pale ale”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same beer, bearing a cartoon of Albanese in his student radical days, was handed out at his victory party on Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
True to his Labor roots, Albanese’s first term has focused on household concerns such as the cost of childcare and hospital funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has promised to embrace renewable energy, tackle a worsening housing crisis and pour money into a creaking healthcare system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he won support from many Australians by criticising US President Donald Trump’s 10-percent trade tariffs as “not the act of a friend”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rate of inflation has eased under Albanese’s leadership but the cost of food, fuel and rent remains stubbornly high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Albanese’s flagship policies was a national referendum that aimed to give greater constitutional recognition to Indigenous Australians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That vote ended in a stinging defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His government has poured money into renewable energy and green manufacturing, and is bidding to host the COP climate conference in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it has also granted permits for new mining projects while handing out subsidies to polluting fossil fuel industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albanese has, however, been praised for stabilising ties with Australia’s largest trading partner, China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was the first Australian premier to visit China in seven years, and helped to end a trade war that hampered billions of dollars in trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is a craft beer afficionado who loves “fighting Tories”, clawing his way to the nation’s highest office from hardscrabble blue-collar beginnings. Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party won a second term in government on Saturday night, dealing a crushing defeat to its conservative rivals. A Labor Party lifer, Albanese has roamed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":82068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,12054,126],"tags":[12033,13004,8074,127,11915,13001,12040,11871,11903,13738,13714],"class_list":["post-82071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-politics","category-portraits-en","tag-albanese-2","tag-anthony-2","tag-australia-3","tag-australie","tag-elections-4","tag-federal-2","tag-labor-2","tag-pm-3","tag-politics-2","tag-portrait-2","tag-victory-en"],"yoast_head":"\n