Commentary
Australia has a new prime minister, its 31st—the Australian Labor Party (ALP) center-left leader Anthony Albanese—as a result of an election on May 21, which saw both major parties suffer dramatic losses of support.
The country’s unique system of preferences means that the votes for smaller, losing parties are reallocated by voters to candidates who have passed a threshold primary vote level. It was this system of preferences that pushed Labor candidates over the line, even though they had only 30 percent of the primary vote.
Indeed, no government in Australia has ever been elected with such a small percentage of the primary vote….