Commentary
Australia’s general election on May 21 hangs on a knife-edge. Polls still marginally favor the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Anthony Albanese.
The outcome will be critical in determining just how rapidly—if at all—China advances its interests in the Indo-Pacific and whether the new Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) alliance moves solidly ahead.
Many members of the leadership of the ALP, including its deputy leader, Richard Marles, have been accommodating toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A Labor government, should it be elected, was expected to give Beijing far more breathing space in the Indo-Pacific, including muting the Western response to China’s building of strategic bridgeheads in Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Kiribati….