Last night, Labor won the seat of Macnamara meaning they now hold 76 of the 151-seats in the House of Representatives.
If you’ve heard the term “majority government” thrown around a few times this week, but had no idea what it actually is… you’re certainly not alone.
Labor have now managed to win the number of seats in the House of Representatives necessary to hold a majority government without the help of smaller parties.
Essentially, this means it will be much easier to pass bills through the Senate, as Anthony Albanese’s party will have the highest number of votes (as long as they all vote together).
However, if Labor didn’t reach the magic number of 76 seats, the result would have been a “hung parliament”.
In this instance, Labor would have had to butter up a couple of Independent or Greens senators to vote with them, so that they would have majority over the Liberals.
Of course, this can make it harder to pass bills as both parties need to agree on the legislation for it to be passed. On the flip side, the Greens might have swayed Labor towards more action on climate change in addition to their current policies.
But there’s a good chance that Albo will push for climate action regardless, so Labor holding the majority government is a promising development.
Either way, one thing’s for certain. It’s nice to have some hope for the future of the Australian government.
