Anthony Albanese

23 May 2022

Anthony Norman Albanese became Australia’s 31st Prime Minister after the Australian Labor Party won the 2022 general election.

He was Leader of the Opposition from 2019 to 2022 and served briefly as the Deputy Prime Minister under the second Rudd government in 2013.

Albanese’s entry into federal politics

Anthony Albanese grew up in public housing in Sydney, where he lived with his mother, a part-time cleaner who was on a disability pension. He regularly references the influence of his upbringing on his career in politics.

Albanese joined the Labor Party as a teenager and engaged in student activism while studying economics at the University of Sydney. He was the President of Young Labor (NSW) from 1985 to 1987 and Assistant General Secretary of the Australian Labor Party (NSW) from 1989 to 1995. Albanese has been the member for the Sydney seat of Grayndler since 1996.

He served as a Cabinet Minister under the Rudd and Gillard governments (2007–2013), with responsibility for infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government. During this time he helped deliver nation-building projects including the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout. Albanese was also Leader of the House of Representatives from 2008 to 2013.