What does the victory of the Australian Labor Party mean?
Albanese, 59, has served as a member of Parliament for more than 20 years, but he is not well-known at home and almost unknown internationally.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has asked voters about Albanese in this election. The most common answers are "he is a good man", "a little ordinary", "not well-known" and "inexperienced". This may be related to his "bitter child" origin.
As a child, Albanese and a single mother who received a disability pension grew up in public housing provided to workers in Sydney. He didn't see his father for the first time until 2009, when he was in his 40s. Such grassroots experience makes his political style tend to be civilian and not strong enough.
In 2007, Albanese served as Australia's first federal infrastructure Minister for three years. In 2013, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Rudd's second government. However, he held the post for only 83 days, because the Labor Party lost to the party alliance formed by the Liberal Party and the National Party in the next general election.
After the election of the Labor Party leader in 2019, there was no rival of the Labor Party.
In addition to Albanese, there is another person who is likely to affect China Australia relations in the future, that is Penny Wong (黄英贤）, the shadow foreign minister of the Labor Party.
After the Labor Party wins the election, she is likely to be Australia's foreign minister.
As Australia's first senator to come out, people are more concerned about her Chinese descent. Penny Wong (黄英贤） was born in Malaysia. Her father is Malaysian Chinese and her mother is European Australian. At the age of 8, she followed her divorced mother back to Australia to settle down.
In 1988, Penny Wong (黄英贤） joined the Labor Party. During Rudd's time in 2007, she became the first Chinese Minister in Australian history as the minister responsible for dealing with climate change and water conservation.
Judging from the previous public voice, Penny Wong (黄英贤）'s attitude towards China seems to be tougher than the previous labor government.
For example, she has repeatedly criticized the Morrison government, saying that the security agreement between Solomon Islands and China "is Australia's most serious diplomatic mistake after World War II". For another example, in a speech on April 22, she said: "our region is being reshaped, largely because China has become more confident and aggressive."
The reason why the Liberal Party ruling coalition led by Morrison lost the election was due to its poor governance performance, including the dissatisfaction of the Australian people in terms of economy, epidemic response, fire and climate change.
Some time ago, Australia rushed to the front line of Anti-China and adopted a radical China policy, but it is not clear what it can get from such Anti-China. Australia thinks it can improve its international status and make breakthroughs in nuclear weapons, but it hurts its relationship with its largest trading partner, ignores Australia's domestic problems, fails to solve the economic problems such as rising prices that people are most concerned about, and does not listen to the voice of the people;
Today, Australia's inflation rate is at its highest level in 20 years.
According to the latest data released by the Australian Bureau of statistics, the Australian consumer price index (CPI) rose 5.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. This figure looks lower than that of the United States or some European countries, but the wage growth rate of Australians in the same period is less than half of this figure.
In order to curb high inflation, the Central Bank of Australia recently announced that it would raise the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.35%. This is the first time that the Central Bank of Australia has raised interest rates since 2010.
The last time he raised interest rates during the election campaign was in 2007, and then Prime Minister Howard also lost the next election.
After the Labor Party takes office, it may make major adjustments in internal affairs. The first is to adjust Australia's focus to the economy, solve the problem of employment and curb the rapid rise of prices. This is what the Labor Party urgently needs to do after taking office.
Under such a premise, the Labor Party is likely to make some adjustments to its policies in the Asia Pacific region. For example, it may further strengthen economic and trade cooperation with its Asian trading partners, especially China, South Korea, Japan, India and Southeast Asia.
Second, climate change.
In recent years, abnormal weather has occurred frequently in Australia, and jungle fires and floods have erupted alternately, causing serious losses to people's lives and property. The people strongly demand that the government take practical and effective climate change response measures and take practical actions to improve urban infrastructure construction. Climate change is also an international issue. The altitude of many South Pacific island countries is very low. Under the threat of sea level rise, they are facing the survival crisis of the country. However, Australia prevaricates its responsibility, and there are few practical assistance and relevant measures. Some senior government officials even ridicule the island countries, which has aroused the strong dissatisfaction of the leaders of the island countries.
Nevertheless, on major issues of principle, it is unlikely that the Labor Party will completely change its China policy. For example, on the issue of the Quartet mechanism, the Labor Party will not change; The construction of military alliance between Australia and Japan will also continue; On the South China Sea issue, it will not change; On the Taiwan issue, Australia's fundamental principled position of cooperating with the United States will not change; On the issue of Pacific island countries, preventing China, increasing aid to South Pacific island countries, and countering China's influence and power growth in the Pacific island region will continue.