Labor to welcome new faces after landslide election win
Tess Ikonomou |
New faces will be welcomed to the fold as Labor politicians come together for the first time since their emphatic victory at the federal election.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address the caucus meeting in Canberra on Friday after his party’s landslide win.
The scale of the success has taken even senior Labor ministers by surprise, lending to a buoyant feeling among the party’s members.
A record number of women will be taking their seats in parliament, with women to outnumber men in the Labor partyroom.
At least 46 seats will be held by women in the Labor government out of a total of 150 in the House of Representatives.
More than a dozen new MPs will join the ranks after Labor increased its seats from 77 to at least 90 as the count continues.
Australian National University political historian Frank Bongiorno said Labor hadn’t had a victory this size since 1943.
“It’s a remarkable opportunity for the government to craft a legacy, which could extend even beyond this term,” he said.
“Governments don’t normally extend their majorities … you normally win your first election reasonably comfortably, and then you begin burning political capital straight away in that first term, and then often have to scrape a win the second time round.”
New Dickson MP Ali France has been hailed a “Labor legend” after she became the first person to unseat an opposition leader at an election with her defeat of Peter Dutton.
Former Tasmanian state opposition leader Rebecca White’s victory in Lyons has her among the contenders to be elevated to the ministry, expected to be unveiled on Monday ahead of a swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.
The depleted Liberals will hold a partyroom meeting on Tuesday to pick their new leader with Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley looming as the leading candidates.
Attracting women voters and candidates has been a major issue for the coalition.
The new women joining Labor’s ranks were to the party’s “major political advantage”, Professor Bongiorno said.
“We know that there will be women at the table, at the cabinet table, there’ll be women there in caucus when issues come up that are of particular interest to women,” he said.
“We know that women’s voices and women’s agency will be there.”
AAP
