Anthony Albanese

Anthony Norman Albanese ( AL-bə-neez-ee or AL-bə-neez; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labor Party since 2019. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Grayndler since 1996. Albanese served as the 15th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia in 2013 and a Cabinet Minister in the Rudd and Gillard Governments from 2007 to 2013. Albanese was born in Sydney and attended St Mary's Cathedral College, before going on to the University of Sydney to study economics. He joined the Labor Party as a student, and before entering parliament worked as a party official and research officer. Albanese was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1996 election, winning the Division of Grayndler in New South Wales. He was first appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001 and went on to serve in a number of roles, eventually becoming Manager of Opposition Business in 2006. After Labor's victory in the 2007 election, Albanese was appointed Leader of the House; he was also made Minister for Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. In the subsequent leadership tensions between Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard from 2010 to 2013, Albanese was publicly critical of the conduct of both, calling for unity. After the final leadership ballot between the two in June 2013, Albanese was elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party and was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia the following day. Following Labor's defeat in the 2013 election, Albanese stood against Bill Shorten in the ensuing leadership election, the first to include party members as well as MPs. Although Albanese won a large majority of the membership, Shorten won more heavily among Labor MPs; Shorten subsequently appointed Albanese to his Shadow Cabinet. After Labor's third consecutive defeat in the 2019 election, Shorten resigned. Albanese became the only person to nominate in the leadership election; he was subsequently declared elected unopposed as the Leader of the Labor Party, becoming Leader of the Opposition.