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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Tory Shepherd

As Australia heads to the polls, big parties brace for rise of independents

Anthony Albanese holds a mobile phone to take a selfie, as volunteers wearing 'Claire Clutterham' T-shirts gather around Clutterham herself
The Australian PM, Anthony Albanese (holding phone), and a Labor candidate, Claire Clutterham (centre), take a selfie with volunteers during a visit to an early voting polling place in Sturt, Adelaide, on Thursday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

More than 18 million Australians will head to the polls this Saturday to choose between the incumbent centre-left Labor party and its conservative-leaning Liberal/National Coalition challenger.

But about one in three voters will brush off the major contenders – led by the current prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton – in favour of someone else altogether, in an election marked by a cost of living crisis and the spectre of Donald Trump.

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