Previous offices 2007–⁠2013

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
In office 3 December 2007 – 18 September 2013
Prime Minister	Kevin Rudd Julia Gillard
Preceded by	Mark Vaile
Succeeded by	Warren Truss
Leader of the House
In office 3 December 2007 – 18 September 2013
Prime Minister	Kevin Rudd Julia Gillard
Deputy	Stephen Smith
Preceded by	Tony Abbott
Succeeded by	Christopher Pyne
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
In office 1 July – 18 September 2013
Prime Minister	Kevin Rudd
Preceded by	Stephen Conroy
Succeeded by	Malcolm Turnbull (as Minister for Communications)
Minister for Regional Development and Local Government
In office 25 March – 1 July 2013
Prime Minister	Julia Gillard Kevin Rudd
Preceded by	Simon Crean
Succeeded by	Catherine King
In office 3 December 2007 – 14 September 2010
Prime Minister	Kevin Rudd Julia Gillard
Preceded by	Jim Lloyd
Succeeded by	Simon Crean
Manager of Opposition Business
In office 10 December 2006 – 3 December 2007
Leader	Kevin Rudd
Preceded by	Julia Gillard
Succeeded by	Joe Hockey

Member of the Australian House of Representatives
for Grayndler

Incumbent

Assumed office
2 March 1996

Preceded by

Jeannette McHugh

Personal details

Born

Anthony Norman Albanese

2 March 1963 (age 62)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Political party

Labor (since 1979)

Spouse

Carmel Tebbutt

(m. 2000; div. 2019)

Domestic partners

Jodie Haydon (2021–present, engaged in 2024)

Children

Residences

The Lodge (primary)
Kirribilli House (secondary)

Alma mater

University of Sydney (BEc)

Signature

Website

Nickname

Albo

Anthony Norman Albanese ( AL-bə-NEE-zee or 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 the leader of the Labor Party since 2019 and a member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales division of Grayndler since 1996.

His government was re-elected in a landslide victory in the 2025 federal election, with Albanese becoming the first prime minister to be re-elected since John Howard in the 2004 election.

Early life

Family and background

Albanese was born on 2 March 1963 at St Margaret's Hospital in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst. He is the son of Carlo Albanese and Maryanne Ellery. His mother was an Australian of Irish descent, while his Italian father was from Barletta in Apulia. The Italian surname Albanese is in reference to the Arbëreshë people, ethnic Albanians indigenous to the part of southern Italy where Albanese's father came from. His parents met in March 1962 on a voyage from Sydney to Southampton, England, on the Sitmar Line's TSS Fairsky, where his father worked as a steward, but did not continue their relationship afterwards, going their separate ways. Coincidentally, the Fairsky was also the ship on which Albanese's future parliamentary colleague Julia Gillard and her family migrated to South Australia from the United Kingdom in 1966.

Growing up, Albanese was told that his father had died in a car accident; he did not meet his father, who was in fact still alive, until 2009, tracking him down initially with the assistance of John Faulkner, Carnival Australia's CEO Ann Sherry (the parent company of P&O, which acquired the Sitmar Line in 1988) and maritime historian Rob Henderson, and then later the Australian Embassy in Italy and ambassador Amanda Vanstone. He subsequently discovered that he had two half-siblings. During the Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis of 2017, it was noted that, although birth to an Italian father would ordinarily confer citizenship by descent, Albanese had no father recorded on his birth certificate and thus meets the parliamentary eligibility requirements of section 44 of the constitution.

Albanese's maternal grandfather George Ellery ran a printing business on William Street in Darlinghurst. He provided printing services to the ALP.

Childhood and education

Albanese grew up with his mother and maternal grandparents in a Sydney City Council home in the Inner West suburb of Camperdown, opposite the Camperdown Children's Hospital. His grandfather died in 1970, and the following year his mother married James Williamson. He was given his stepfather's surname, but the marriage lasted only 10 weeks. Albanese's mother worked part-time as a cleaner but suffered from chronic rheumatoid arthritis, with the family surviving on her disability pension and his grandmother's age pension.

Albanese attended St Joseph's Primary School in Camperdown and then St Mary's Cathedral College. After finishing school, he worked for the Commonwealth Bank for two years before studying economics at the University of Sydney. There, he became involved in student politics and was elected to the Students' Representative Council. It was also there where he started his rise as a key player in the ALP's Labor Left. During his time in student politics, Albanese led a group within Young Labor that was aligned with the left faction's Hard Left, which maintained "links with broader left-wing groups, such as the Communist Party of Australia, People for Nuclear Disarmament and the African National Congress".

Albanese's mother died in 2002.

Pre-parliamentary career and travel

After completing his economics degree in 1984, Albanese took on a role as a research officer to the then Minister for Local Government and Administrative Services, Tom Uren, who became a mentor to him. In 1989, the position of Assistant General Secretary of the New South Wales branch of the Labor Party became vacant when John Faulkner was elected to the Senate. The election to replace him was closely disputed between the Labor Left's Hard Left and Soft Left groupings, with Albanese being elected with the backing of the Hard Left, taking on that role for the next six years. In 1995, he left the position to work as a senior adviser to New South Wales Premier Bob Carr.

Albanese's first overseas trip was in 1986, accompanying his friend Jeremy Fisher to Vanuatu. In 1987, Albanese joined his boss Tom Uren on a visit to South-East Asia, which included: a meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand; an Anzac Day dawn service at the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery with John Carrick; and a tour of Cambodia alongside Bill Hayden's daughter Ingrid. He then travelled extensively in 1988, visiting Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Western Europe on a Contiki tour, and Eastern Europe and Scandinavia as a backpacker. Upon returning to Australia, he began dating Carmel Tebbutt, with whom he would holiday in Europe and South-East Asia, plus a backpacking trip to India in 1991. Sometime during his 20s, Albanese also took part in a tour of the United States organised by the State Department, with a thematic focus on the interaction of advocacy groups with the U.S. Government.

In 1990 Albanese bought a semi-detached two-bedroom house in the Inner West Sydney suburb of Marrickville.

Early political career

Entry to Parliament

Albanese shortly after his election to Parliament.

When Jeannette McHugh announced she would not recontest her seat of Grayndler at the 1996 election, Albanese won preselection for the seat. The campaign was a difficult one, with aircraft noise a big political issue following the opening of the third runway at Sydney Airport, and the newly established No Aircraft Noise party (NAN) having polled strongly in the local area at the 1995 New South Wales election. Veteran political pundit Malcolm Mackerras predicted NAN would win the seat. However, NAN's candidate finished third, with less than 14% of the vote. Despite suffering a six-point swing against Labor, Albanese was elected with a comfortable 16-point margin.

In his maiden speech to the House of Representatives, he spoke about the building of a third runway at Sydney Airport, aircraft noise and the need to build a second airport to service Sydney, as well as his support for funding public infrastructure in general, multiculturalism, native title, the social wage and childcare. He concluded by saying, "For myself, I will be satisfied if I can be remembered as someone who will stand up for the interests of my electorate, for working-class people, for the labour movement, and for our progressive advancement as a nation into the next century."

Appointment to Shadow Cabinet

Anthony Albanese, Australian Labor MP in 2005

Albanese in 2005

In 1998, Albanese was appointed a parliamentary secretary, a position which assists ministers and shadow ministers and is often a stepping stone to a full ministerial position.

In 2001, he was promoted to the opposition Shadow Cabinet, taking the portfolio of ageing and seniors. A 2002 reshuffle saw him become Shadow Minister for Employment Services and Training, and in 2004 he became Shadow Minister for Environment and Heritage. It was during this latter role that then prime minister John Howard and science minister Brendan Nelson started raising the idea of nuclear power for Australia. Albanese campaigned strongly against them, as well as elements within his own party, arguing that "Nuclear energy doesn't add up economically, environmentally or socially, and after more than 50 years of debate, we still do not have an answer to nuclear proliferation or nuclear waste."

In 2005, he was given the additional role of Shadow Minister for Water alongside his existing responsibilities, and was also appointed Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House. In December 2006, when Kevin Rudd first became Leader of the Labor Party, Albanese took over from Julia Gillard as Manager of Opposition Business in the House, a senior tactical role on the floor of the parliament, and was appointed Shadow Minister for Water and Infrastructure.

Cabinet minister

Albanese in 2011

Rudd government

Following Labor's victory at the 2007 election, Albanese's rise in standing within the party was evidenced by his appointment as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Regional Development and Local Government and Leader of the House in the Rudd ministry. Rudd was sworn in alongside his colleagues on 3 December 2007.

The Labor Party had gone to the election criticising the previous government for ignoring "long-term nation building in favour of short-term political spending". One of Albanese's first moves as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport was the establishment of an independent statutory body, Infrastructure Australia, to advise the Government on infrastructure priorities. Armed with advice from this independent body and his own persuasive skills in the Cabinet, he was able to argue for a doubling of the roads budget and a tenfold increase in rail investment. The establishment of Infrastructure Australia was regarded by many as a success; projects delivered through the Infrastructure Australia process included Melbourne's Regional Rail Link, the Hunter Expressway, the Ipswich Motorway, the Gold Coast light rail system G:link, the Redcliffe Peninsula railway line, the extension of the Noarlunga Centre railway line to Seaford, South Australia and various projects along the Pacific Highway in NSW and Bruce Highway in Queensland.

Gillard government

Albanese at the opening of the Holbrook Bypass in 2013

After Julia Gillard replaced Rudd as prime minister following the leadership spill in June 2010 she retained Albanese in his roles. Following the 2010 election, which resulted in a hung parliament, Albanese was a key player in negotiating the support of independent members Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott through his role of Leader of the House. Albanese was also responsible for managing legislation through the House in the first hung parliament since the 1940s.

In 2011, Albanese introduced two more major policy reforms. The first on urban planning drew on the work of Danish designer Jan Gehl and set out plans for urban design with better transport links and safety. The second, on shipping, was notable for gaining the approval of both the conservative Australian Shipowners Associations and the radical Maritime Union of Australia.

Following a series of poor polls, leadership instability descended again on the Labor government. Former prime minister Kevin Rudd resigned as Minister for Foreign Affairs in February 2012 to unsuccessfully challenge Julia Gillard for the leadership. Shortly before the ballot, Albanese came out in support of Rudd, stating that he had always been unhappy with the manner of Rudd's removal. He tearfully explained how he had offered his resignation as Leader of the House to the prime minister, but that she had refused to accept it, and called on Labor to cease leadership divisions and unify. In response to a question on his personal feelings around the leadership spill, he stated "I like fighting Tories. That's what I do."

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia

Albanese sworn in as deputy prime minister by Governor-General Quentin Bryce

In June 2013, Rudd defeated Gillard in a final leadership election. That same ballot saw Albanese elected by the caucus as Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, and the following day Albanese was sworn in as deputy prime minister. He held this role until Labor's defeat at the 2013 election, and was replaced by Warren Truss on 18 September.

Return to Opposition

2013 leadership election

Following the defeat of Labor at the 2013 election, Albanese announced his candidacy to be Leader of the Labor Party, standing against Bill Shorten. Shorten was announced as the winner after a month-long contest that was the first to involve a combined vote of MPs and rank-and-file members. Although Albanese won comfortably among party members, Shorten held a greater lead among MPs, and was subsequently elected.

Shorten Opposition

In October 2013, shortly after the leadership election, Shorten appointed Albanese Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Shadow Minister for Tourism; he held these roles throughout Shorten's time as leader. In September 2014, Albanese was given the additional role of Shadow Minister for Cities. Following Labor's narrow loss in the 2016 federal election, it was reported by Sky News that Albanese was preparing to challenge Shorten for the leadership of the party. However, Albanese ruled out such a challenge, and Shorten was re-elected unopposed as Labor leader.

Leader of the Opposition (2019–2022)

Albanese during his time as Leader of the Opposition

2019 leadership election

Bill Shorten announced his resignation as Leader of the Labor Party on 18 May 2019, following Labor's unexpected defeat in the 2019 election. The day after, Albanese announced his candidacy in the subsequent leadership election. On 21 May, Chris Bowen announced he would also contest the ballot; however, the next day, he announced his withdrawal, citing his lack of support among the party membership. With no other candidate stepping forward, Albanese took the leadership unopposed on 30 May, with Richard Marles as his deputy. Aged 56 when he took office, he became the oldest first-time Opposition Leader in 59 years, since Arthur Calwell (aged 63) took office in 1960. Albanese unveiled his shadow ministry on 1 June 2019.

2022 federal election

Albanese led the Labor Party into the 2022 federal election. On the first day of campaigning, Albanese was unable to name either the official cash rate or unemployment rate, which drew criticism. On 20 April, Albanese faced prime minister Scott Morrison in a debate hosted by Sky News, with Albanese being deemed the winner through an audience vote. However, the next day, Albanese tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to isolate at home in Sydney. He returned to campaigning the following week and, on 1 May, hosted Labor's campaign launch in Perth, unveiling policies to reduce the cost of medicine and childcare, increase manufacturing in Australia, and introduce a shared equity housing scheme to assist first-time home buyers. Albanese faced Morrison in two further debates, hosted by Channel Nine and Channel Seven, respectively. Opinion polling indicated that support for the two major parties would reach record lows, due to high levels of support for third parties and independent candidates.

Prime Minister of Australia (2022–present)

Albanese with Vietnamese President Võ Văn Thưởng in Hanoi, Vietnam, June 2023

At the election on 21 May 2022, Labor was victorious over the incumbent Liberal–National Coalition, with Albanese becoming the 31st prime minister of Australia. Despite a decrease in the party's primary vote, Labor received a 3.66 percent two-party preferred swing towards it. The Coalition also lost several seats to "teal independents", allowing Labor to become the party with the most seats in Parliament.

Although it was not certain on election day that Labor would win a majority of seats, it soon became apparent that no other party could realistically form a government. Accordingly, two days after the election, Albanese, deputy Labor leader Richard Marles, Jim Chalmers, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher were sworn in as an interim five-person ministry. Albanese is the first Italian-Australian prime minister in the country's history.

Albanese secured confidence and supply from several crossbenchers in the event that he was unable to form majority government. However, on 30 May, it was projected that Labor had won at least 76 seats, enough to win a majority for the first time at the federal level since the 2007 election. Albanese's full ministry was sworn in on 1 June.

Domestic affairs

Economy

Cost-of-living

Albanese's first term has been dominated by Australia's cost-of-living crisis, which has been attributed to the worldwide inflation surge of 2021–23. Monthly inflation peaked at a high of 8.4% in December 2022, and the Reserve Bank of Australia increased interest rates twelve times, reaching a rate of 4.35% by November 2023, the highest since 2011. In the 2023 Australian federal budget, the Albanese government delivered a surplus of $22.1 billion (equivalent to 0.9% of Australia's GDP); this was Australia's first budget surplus in 15 years, and the largest ever Australian budget surplus. In the 2024 budget, the government posted a second consecutive surplus of $9.3 billion. The budget returned to a $42.1 billion deficit in the 2025 budget.

In January 2024, the Albanese government made changes to the previously legislated stage three tax cuts, which would see individuals earning less than A$150,000 receive a larger tax cut than under the original plan. These changes were met with some criticism, particularly by the Opposition and conservative media outlets, and was viewed as a breach of a pre-election promise, as Albanese had repeatedly stated he would not alter the tax cuts if elected. Despite this, the changes proved popular with the public, and the overhauled tax cuts were passed by the Senate on 27 February 2024. His government announced a further $17 billion in tax cuts in the 2025 budget, which will reduce the bottom tax bracket from 16% to 15% in 2026, and to 14% in 2027.

Housing

Albanese took office amid a major housing affordability crisis, with the average Australian house price being nine times the average household income by 2024. To remedy supply-side issues that contribute to rising prices, in August 2023, Albanese reached an agreement with National Cabinet to build 1.2 million houses over five years. On 13 September 2023, the government passed the Housing Australia Future Fund, a $10 billion investment fund controlled by the Future Fund that is designed to build 30,000 new social and affordable homes over the following five years in a further effort to increase supply. On 25 September 2024, his government instructed the Treasury to examine negative gearing. As a divisive wedge issue in Australian politics, changes to negative gearing rules were proposed by Labor prior to the 2019 election, in which they were defeated. Albanese had previously pledged not to modify negative gearing as Opposition Leader, leading to criticism from the Coalition and conservative media outlets for appearing to backtrack on this promise. After intense media speculation, Albanese ruled out making changes to negative gearing the next day. In November 2024, the Albanese government legislated a "help-to-buy" shared equity scheme that aims to allow up to 40,000 first-time home buyers to purchase a home with a shared contribution with the government, and a tax concession to incentivise developers to build houses specifically for the purpose of renting. In February 2025, his government placed a two-year ban on non-citizens buying existing houses.

According to some critics, the housing affordability crisis in Australia has been exacerbated by Albanese's immigration policies.

"Future Made in Australia" manufacturing policy

In April 2024, Albanese announced a major industrial policy called "Future Made in Australia", which seeks to promote Australian manufacturing in sustainable energy.

As part of the policy, the government's third budget contained $22.7 billion over a decade in support of domestic green hydrogen, solar-panel manufacturing, and mining of critical minerals. This includes a $1 billion "Solar Sunshot" program to support solar panel manufacturing in Australia, and a $566 million "Resourcing Australia's Prosperity" initiative for geomapping for mining resources.

In July 2024, his government introduced legislation to give further effect to the policy, which passed the Parliament in November 2024.

Climate change, environment and energy

On 16 June 2022, Albanese submitted a new Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations which formally committed Australia to reducing carbon emissions by 43% on 2005 levels. This represented an increase from the 26 to 28% target under the previous government. In September 2022, the Albanese government passed legislation to write this climate target into law. Albanese's government also entered a bid for Australia and its Pacific island neighbours to host the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Albanese supported a major expansion of gas production. In December 2024, he approved the expansion of four coal mines. He declared that he would not lift the moratorium on nuclear power in Australia.

In late-2022, his government announced reforms to the "safeguard mechanism", an emissions trading scheme that requires Australia's largest carbon emitters to keep their emissions under a "baseline limit", either by reducing them, or by purchasing carbon credits. The mechanism was introduced by the Turnbull government in 2016, but failed to reduce emissions as the rules were often left unenforced. In March 2023, the Albanese government received the necessary support to pass the legislation from the Greens, who negotiated a "hard cap" on emissions that cannot be offset by carbon credits. The bill was passed on 30 March 2023, marking the most significant piece of climate change legislation passed through the Australian parliament since the Clean Energy Act 2011. On 5 October 2023, Australia re-joined the United Nations' Green Climate Fund, which the previous Morrison government had withdrawn from in 2018. In December 2023, the government legislated a "nature repair market" to create a biodiversity market to encourage private companies to invest in projects that protect biodiversity, and committed to establishing a federal environmental protection agency (EPA). However, the legislation to establish an EPA was delayed after lobbying from the mining sector and the state government of Western Australia, attracting criticism from environmental groups. In May 2024, the government legislated a vehicle emission standard for new vehicles sold in Australia from 1 July 2025, in an effort to introduce more fuel efficient vehicles to the Australian market.

Albanese's government took office during a massive surge in electricity prices exacerbated by the global energy crisis. On 9 December 2022, Albanese convened a meeting of the National Cabinet and announced a coordinated plan to introduce temporary caps on gas and coal prices. On 15 December, Albanese recalled Parliament to pass a 12-month cap on gas prices to limit electricity price rises.

Industrial relations

In one of his first acts as prime minister on 27 May 2022, Albanese confirmed that his government would make a submission to the Fair Work Commission in support of an increase to the national minimum wage. On 2 June 2023, the Albanese government contributed to a decision by the Fair Work Commission with another letter encouraging a rise in the minimum wage in line with inflation. The government announced that a submission had been formally made to the commission on 3 June 2022 and that a "deliberate" policy of lower wages was not the policy of the new government. The Fair Work Commission subsequently announced on 15 June 2022 that the minimum wage would be raised by 5.2%.

On 2 December 2022, the government passed its Secure Jobs, Better Pay law through the Parliament. The new law allows unions to negotiate multi-employer pay deals in an effort to secure wage increases across particular sectors such as child care and aged care. The law also aims to close the gender pay gap by prohibiting pay secrecy employment clauses and secures the right of workers to seek flexible working arrangements.

Throughout 2023, the Albanese government attempted to pass additional industrial relations reforms through Parliament, dubbed the Closing Loopholes bill, which aimed to ensure temporary workers employed through labour hire were paid the same wage as regular workers, criminalise wage theft and make companies responsible for industrial manslaughter, among other changes. Despite fierce opposition from the Liberal Party and business lobbies, the first part of the bill was passed by the Senate on 7 December 2023. The second tranche of legislation, which introduced minimum standards for gig workers and allowed workers the right to disconnect, was passed on 8 February 2024.

Social policy

Indigenous affairs

In his victory speech on election night, Albanese expressed his support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and stated that his government would implement it in full within its first term. In his first press conference as Prime Minister, the podium flags in the blue room at Parliament were changed to include Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags in addition to the Australian flag. Upon the opening of the new Parliament, both flags began to be displayed in the House of Representatives and Senate chambers. Albanese pledged to hold a referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament to assist the government with Indigenous issues, and recognise Indigenous Australians in Australia's constitution. The 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum was held on 14 October and the change to the Constitution was rejected by the majority of Australian voters and passed in no state or territory, bar the Australian Capital Territory. In August 2024, Albanese abandoned his commitment to implement the remaining components of the Uluru Statement.

Immigration

On 25 May 2022, in one of its first acts upon coming to government, the Albanese government allowed the Murugappan family to stay in Australia after the previous Morrison government had attempted to deport them. In February 2023, the Albanese government abolished temporary protection visas, allowing up to 19,000 asylum seekers to stay in Australia permanently. On 8 November 2023, the High Court of Australia ruled on NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, striking down the precedent established by Al-Kateb v Godwin and holding that indefinite detention of immigrants was illegal, leading to the immediate release of 148 people, some of whom had committed serious crimes. In response, the government enacted emergency legislation to put those released under strict visa conditions − including mandating the use of ankle monitoring and a mandatory curfew – and establish a preventive detention scheme to re-detain people who were found to pose a high risk to the community. However, in November 2024, the High Court would also find these laws unconstitutional, striking them down on the grounds they were too punitive. To circumvent this ruling, Albanese's government unveiled legislation that gave the federal government comprehensive powers to deport non-citizens. Despite vociferous criticism from human rights and refugee advocacy groups, the necessary bills passed on 29 November 2024.

In 2023–24, the number of migrant arrivals decreased to 667,000, down from 739,000 a year earlier. Net overseas migration was 536,000 in 2022–23, up from 170,900 in 2021–22. On 11 December 2023, the Albanese government announced its ten-year migration strategy designed to overhaul the immigration system and reduce Australia's annual net migration intake to 250,000 by June 2025. His government also announced it would introduce caps on the annual intake of international students, but attempts to pass these into law were blocked by the opposition and the Greens in Parliament.

Health

In May 2023, Albanese's government invested $3.5 billion to triple the fee general practitioners receive for bulk billing their patients in order to address the decline in rates of bulk billing. In February 2025, Albanese committed his government to invest $8.5 billion in Medicare services including $18 million in subsidised general practitioner's visits, 400 nursing scholarships and general practitioner training programs for 2,000 doctors The Albanese government implemented an election promise to fund non-emergency urgent care clinics, opening up 58 across every state and territory by the beginning of 2024.

Aged care and childcare

The first bill Albanese's government passed was one responding to the 17 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. The legislation amended the aged care funding model and introduces new reporting and transparency requirements. The government passed reforms to aged care in November 2024 to increase funding for home care and cut down waiting times for new entrants into aged cared facilities. In March 2025, Albanese and his government passed legislation to subsidise the cost of childcare for most families and guarantee a minimum of three days of subsidised care.

Political views

Albanese has described his political views as progressive, and is aligned with the Labor Left faction.

Albanese is a republican, and supports replacing Australia's current constitutional monarchy. In a debate to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, he told the Australian Parliament, "Even many Australians who do not hold with the principle of monarchy feel regard for her. You can be a republican, as I am, and still have the deepest respect for the Queen. She has done her duty with fidelity, integrity, humanity and, as she sometimes lets slip, a sly sense of humour." He has stated his desire to give constitutional recognition to Indigenous Australians, and pledged to hold a referendum regarding an Indigenous Voice to Parliament upon becoming prime minister.

Social issues

Albanese at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 2003

Albanese is a supporter and advocate for LGBT rights, and often participates in the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. When Labor Party members were granted a conscience vote on the Marriage Amendment Bill 2012, which would have legalised same-sex marriage in Australia, Albanese voted in favour of the bill, which was unsuccessful. He opposed holding a plebiscite for same-sex marriage, stating that "we shouldn't be having a public vote where we get to judge other families". In 2017, Albanese also voted in favour of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017, the bill which ultimately legalised same-sex marriage.

Environmental issues

While serving in the Gillard government, Albanese supported the introduction of carbon pricing, and voted, along with the rest of the Labor Party, to establish the Clean Energy Act 2011, which instituted a carbon pricing scheme in Australia. After the Abbott government abolished the scheme in July 2014, Albanese stated that carbon pricing was no longer needed, as "the circumstances have changed".

Albanese is a prominent backer of renewable energy in Australia and has declared that the country's "long-term future lies in renewable energy sources". Upon his election in 2022, he said he would "end the climate wars" and mitigation and policies to address climate change in Australia would be a priority for his government, in contrast with those preceding it.

Albanese and Penny Wong with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2022

Personal life

In 2000, Albanese married Carmel Tebbutt, a future Deputy Premier of New South Wales. They have one son together. The two separated in January 2019. In June 2020, it was reported that Albanese was in a relationship with Jodie Haydon. In February 2024, Albanese announced his engagement to Haydon.

Albanese describes himself as "half-Italian and half-Irish" and a "non-practising Catholic". He is also a music fan who, not long after becoming prime minister, attended a Gang of Youths concert at the Enmore Theatre and previously intervened as transport minister to save a Dolly Parton tour from bureaucratic red tape. In 2013, he co-hosted a pre-election special of music program Rage and his song selection included the Pixies, the Pogues, the Smiths, the Triffids, PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Hunters & Collectors and Joy Division. On 30 November 2023, Albanese posted his Spotify Wrapped to his Instagram story, indicating his top artists to be Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, Hilltop Hoods, Bruce Springsteen, and Lily Allen.

As a lifelong supporter of the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league club, Albanese was a board member of the club from 1999 to 2002 and influential in the fight to have the club readmitted to the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. In 2013, he was made a life member of the club.

He is also a fan of Australian rules football, and supports the Hawthorn Football Club, with Albanese attending the 1991 AFL Grand Final which saw Hawthorn claim its 9th premiership.

Anthony Albanese facts for kids

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