Saturday 21 May 2022 02:13 PM Labor Anthony Albanese previously backed move to remove Queen as head of state ... trends now
Republican Anthony Albanese has triumphed at the Australian election after he vowed to tackle the cost of living crisis with more public spending.
Mr Albanese has long been a republican who believes the Queen should not be head of state in Australia and previously said the country should hold a national vote on becoming a republic in 2018.
However, the Labor party manifesto did not include any plans for a referendum on republicanism and the party has not announced any plans to do so - meaning the status quo will remain.
Former PM Malcolm Turnbull led a failed republican campaign during a national referendum on the issue in 1999, which was lost with almost 55 per cent of the voting public choosing to remain.
There were jubilant scenes at Labor headquarters in Sydney today after the party won for only the fourth time since World War II.
Mr Albanese will become the 31st Prime Minister of Australia by ending the Coalition's nine years in power in a bloodbath for Scott Morrison.
His victory comes after Labor pledged to spend an extra £4.1billion compared to the coalition over the next four years if it won today's election.
He said earlier this month: 'The work of building that better future will start the very next day'.
Releasing his policy costings just two days before today's election, Albanese said he planned to increase Australia's debt by £4.1billion - with big spending on childcare, free TAFE (Technical and Further Education), renewable energy and Medicare.
Mr Albanese's introduced policies for a 'better future' with his stance on housing being the star of the show.
The leader proposed a 'Help To Buy' scheme, which would see the government take a 40 per cent stake in up to 10,000 homes a year to help people earning less than $90,000 on to the property ladder.
He also pledged to create a $10billion Housing Australia Future Fund to build 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years - making it easier for young people to get on the property ladder.
The PM also pledged 50 first-aid clinics across the country if he wins the election which will treat non life threatening injuries such as
