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On September 7th, Australian voters went to the polls and returned the Coalition, which is an alliance of the Australian Liberal Party and the Australian National Part, to power for the first time since 2007. The Australian Labor Party suffered its worst electoral defeat in a century despite presiding over an economic boom that has enabled Australia to escape a severe global economic recession and the effect of financial crises in the United States and Europe. The prime minister-elect, Tony Abbott of the Coalition, was at one time deemed too radical and unelectable, but managed to convince Australians that carbon taxes and refugee issues needed swift attention to preserve Australia’s place as one of the strongest economies in the world and one of the powers in Southeast Asian affairs. Australia is often the “red headed stepchild” of extemporaneous speaking in the sense that it is often ignored by question writers since it does not neatly fit into geographic topic areas. Nevertheless, due to the country’s strategic alliance with the United States and its economic ties to China, it is an important country to know when assessing Asia-Pacific affairs.
This topic brief will provide some background information on the recent parliamentary elections, discuss the results of the election, and then analyze how the new Coalition government will deal with the major issues that affect Australia, both foreign and domestic.
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