‘I want to change Australia’: Labor leader Anthony Albanese all set to become next PM

On May 23, Australia's Labor Party will form the country's next government, ending nearly a decade of conservative dominance with unprecedented support for the Greens and climate-focused independents. Labor leader Anthony Albanese said he would be sworn in as the 31st prime minister on May 23 along with four senior party members. According to television broadcasters, Labor is still four to five seats short of a 76-seat majority in the 151-seat lower house, with a dozen electorates too close to call. To reclaim power for the first time since 2013, Labor may require the cooperation of independents and smaller parties, Reuters reported.

"I do want to change the country. I want to change the way that politics operates in this country," Anthony Albanese told reporters in Australia.

Anthony Albanese will head to Tokyo to attend a "Quad" summit on May 24 with US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida.

Several foreign leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern, congratulated Anthony Albanese on his victory.

Independents, largely women, voted against Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal Party in several urban strongholds, campaigning for stronger action on climate change, integrity, and gender equality. In numerous seats, independents and a strong performance by the Greens ate into Labor's vote share.

"I feel like now maybe is the time for us to do something different, and if we can get action on climate change, then that's going to be quite exciting," voter Mark Richardson in Sydney's Wentworth electorate told Reuters. Wentworth is among the traditional Liberal seats snatched by an independent this election.

Morrison, who will step down as leader of the Liberal party, was shown in TV footage at his church on Sunday morning.

You've given us a great foundation from which we could walk ... (in) what has been a very difficult walk ... over the last almost four years," a visibly emotional Morrison told fellow worshippers.

RECORD POSTAL VOTES IN AUSTRALIA

Official results could take several days, with a record 2.7 million postal votes set to be counted on Sunday afternoon, two days sooner than in previous elections.

If a hung parliament results, independents will wield significant influence over the government's climate change policy and ambitions to establish a national anti-corruption commission.

Deputy leader of Labor Richard Marles said the party could still get enough seats to govern on its own.

"I think there is a bit of counting to go, and we are hopeful that we can achieve a majority in our own right," Marles told ABC television.

Barnaby Joyce, the leader of the Liberals' junior partner, the National Party, said Australia needed a "strong government," which must be supported and also held to account.

"So you have to go from a good government to a good opposition," Joyce told Sky News on May 22.