Anthony Albanese disproved the skeptics who believed he was just dreaming

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When Anthony Albanese stalked the Opposition leader in his own seat on the first day of the election campaign, the Coalition said he was dreaming.

Tonight the Labor leader has been returned to the top job in his own right and toppled his opponent Peter Dutton, who has been voted out of parliament and replaced by one of the many new government MPs.

Labor ran a highly disciplined re-election pitch and mounted a potent scare campaign on Medicare funding.

Even though the Coalition matched almost all of the health spending the spectre of the budget cuts of previous years under conservative leadership came back to haunt Dutton.

The thorough routing of the Liberal vote in seats across the country was driven by a strategy to flip Labor seats in the outer suburbs but the message clearly did not connect.

The proposal to target migration cuts was consistently raised in focus groups as alienating to new Australians in their millions who have come to this country for a better life.

One Labor insider who has runs on the board as an MP in the outer suburbs told SBS World News before the campaign began, that the Liberal party did not have locally connected volunteers in those electorates who would be able to get the vote out.

Instead it imported many of its Liberal backers from other areas and did not understand the young, diverse and diaspora communities it was trying to win over.

A former advisor to former prime minister Scott Morrison said the re-emergence of US President Donald Trump also put a “wrecking ball” through the Liberal party campaign.

The promise of public service budget cuts and the end of “woke” agendas seemed popular a few months ago but once the potential extremities of such policies were unfolding in real time, the mood of the electorate darkened.

Did Anthony Albanese win this election? Or did Donald Trump?

In reality it was neither who could claim sole responsibility, because Dutton’s campaign went off the tracks as he jettisoned the unpopular policy to stop public servants working from home and struggled to put policy meat on the bone about his gas reservation policy, the nuclear plan and even the costings it released on the Thursday before the election.

As Dutton criticised the “hate media” and said he wasn’t keen to see Welcome to Country ceremonies, the prime minister was taking selfies with the press and recommitting his government to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage, including continuing to hold press conferences in front of three flags.

Now the Liberal party has to find a way to rebuild, find a new leader and recast itself to try and find an agenda that has public appeal.

Albanese finds himself back in The Lodge, preparing to get married to his partner Jodie and committing to run again in three years time.

But once the ebullient energy of winning starts to dissipate, the structural inequalities built into Australia’s economy and tax system remain, and the cost of living frustrations of those spending their lives paying off household debts or even renting with no prospect of owning their own home, will be waiting for Albanese when he returns to Canberra.