Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advised Gov. General David Harley, representing Australian Prime Minister Queen Elizabeth, to set a date for the election. Morrison will announce later on Sunday that Australia will go to the polls on May 14 or 21. Morrison Conservative Coalition is seeking a fourth three-year term. Morrison led his government to a landslide victory in the final election in 2019, despite opinion polls firmly putting the center-left Australian Labor Party ahead. Morrison’s Liberal Party’s coalition is still behind in most polls, but many analysts predict a narrow result.
The Prime Minister was widely criticized
The last election was the hottest and driest year Australia has ever had. The year ended with devastating wildfires in southeastern Australia that killed 33 people instantly and killed more than 400 others due to smoke. The fires also destroyed more than 3,000 homes and destroyed 19 million hectares of farmland and forests over the summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Morrison was widely criticized for taking secret family vacations in Hawaii at the height of the crisis, while his hometown of Sydney was shrouded in toxic fumes. He interrupted his vacation due to the reaction of the public, but was further criticized for his explanation for his absence: “I do not hold a tire”. CLOCKS Angry Australians confront prime minister over fires:
Angry Australians confront the prime minister over the fires
Residents in Australia are directing their anger at the Prime Minister as fires continue to devastate the country. 1:43
His government has been criticized for its response to wildfires and floods this year in some of the same areas in south-east Australia that were leveled two years earlier.
Both the government and the opposition have set a goal of zero clean carbon emissions by 2050.
Morrison was again widely criticized at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November for failing to set more ambitious targets for the end of the decade.
China, COVID-19 and climate change
The Australian government aims to reduce emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent below 2005 levels, while other countries have made tougher commitments.
The Australian Labor Party has promised to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030.
Australia was initially successful in reducing the number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic largely through restrictions on international travel. But the more contagious Delta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus have proven to be more difficult to limit.
The opposition criticized the government for the growth rate of the vaccine in Australia, which was ridiculed as a “walk”, as it fell months behind schedule. The population of Australia is now one of the most vaccinated in the world.
The government has defended its pandemic history and believes Australia has the third lowest death toll among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 38 countries.
One person is given the COVID-19 vaccine in Sydney on January 10. (Jenny Evans / Getty Images)
With China imposing formal and informal trade sanctions on Australia in recent years, the government says Beijing wants Labor to win the election because the party was less likely to resist economic coercion.
Labor is taking credit for thwarting the government’s plan in 2014 to sign an extradition treaty with China. Bilateral relations have since deteriorated and the government now warns that Australians risk arbitrary detention if they visit China.
“The government seeks to create a sense of difference between itself and the opposition on a crucial national security issue, namely China, seeking to create a sense of difference when it does not exist in practice,” said Dennis Richardson, a former leader. Australia’s defense, foreign affairs and espionage service.
“This is not in the national interest. It only serves the interests of one country and that is China,” added Richardson, who is also Australia’s former ambassador to the United States.
