CANBERRA, Jul 22 (NNN-AAP) – Australia’s 48th federal parliament has officially been opened by Prime Minister (PM), Anthony Albanese, following May’s general election.
Albanese, this morning, opened the 48th session of the federal legislature during a ceremony, in the Great Hall at Parliament House in Canberra.
The commencement of parliament comes, more than two months after Albanese’s Labour Party won a second term in government, in a landslide victory at the May 3 election.
Addressing this morning’s ceremony, after a traditional Aboriginal acknowledgement, Albanese urged all 226 elected members of the federal parliament to write Australia’s “next chapter” with grace and courage.
Earlier today, the prime minister said that, every day in the new parliament would be an “opportunity” for his government to deliver for Australians.
Following the election, Labour holds 94 out of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, the equal-most by any party in history, and 28 of the 76 seats in the Senate.
The conservative Liberal-National Coalition holds 43 lower house seats and 27 in the Senate.
Coalition leader Sussan Ley, said this morning that, the opposition party is at a “low point” in wake of the historic election defeat, but promised to work hard to hold the government to account.
The 48th parliament will turn to legislative affairs tomorrow. Albanese has previously said, his re-elected government’s first priority will be legislation to deliver its election promise, to cut higher education student loan debts by 20 percent.– NNN-AAP
