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The World Ahead | Asia in 2025

Australia is probably headed for a minority government in 2025

A general election will pit two unpopular leaders against each other

A ballot box made of piece of Australia's map, on an orange background.
Illustration: Carl Godfrey
|SYDNEY

By Eleanor Whitehead, Australia and New Zealand correspondent, The Economist

If Australians made one thing clear at the most recent federal election in 2022, it was that they were fed up with the major parties. The conservative Liberal Party, which had been in power for nine years in coalition with the smaller National party, suffered the worst result in its history. But because the Liberals lost eight seats to Greens and green-minded independent candidates (known as “Teals”), the left-leaning Labor Party, the main opposition, edged into power only narrowly. Less than a third of voters backed Labor.

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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2025 under the headline “Unpopularity contest”

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