Anthony Albanese

Biography

Anthony Albanese was born in Sydney in 1963 and raised by his mother, who lived on a disability pension, in council housing in the inner-west suburb of Camperdown; he was told as a child that his Italian father had died, and only met him in 2009. He attended St Mary's Cathedral College and studied economics at the University of Sydney, where he joined the Labor Party. Before entering Parliament he worked as a party official and research officer.

He won the Sydney seat of Grayndler at the 1996 federal election and joined the shadow cabinet in 2001. After Labor's 2007 victory he became Leader of the House and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, posts he kept under Julia Gillard. He supported Kevin Rudd's return in June 2013 and was briefly deputy prime minister before Labor lost that year's election. In the leadership ballot that followed he won most of the membership vote but lost to Bill Shorten among MPs.

After Labor's 2019 defeat he was elected leader unopposed and became Leader of the Opposition, and in May 2022 he led Labor to victory over Scott Morrison's Coalition. His first government set up the National Anti-Corruption Commission, updated Australia's climate targets and held the 2023 referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which was defeated. He was re-elected in a landslide in 2025; in his second term Australia recognised the State of Palestine.