Australia’s prime minister conceded defeat after an election Saturday that could deliver a minority government. Scott Morrison acted quickly despite millions of votes yet to be counted because an Australian prime minister must attended a Tokyo summit on Tuesday with U.S., Japanese and Indian leaders. “I believe it’s very important that this country has certainty. I think it’s very important this country can move forward,” Morrison said. “And particularly over the course of this week with the important meetings that are being held, I think it’s vitally important there’s a very clear understanding about the government of this country,” he added. Opposition leader Anthony Albanese will be sworn in as prime minister after his Labor party clenched its first electoral win since 2007. Labor has promised more financial assistance and a robust social safety net as Australia grapples with the highest inflation since 2001 and soaring housing prices. Also read: Int'l visitors reach two year high as tourists pour back into Australia The party also plans to increase minimal wages, and on the foreign policy front, it proposed to establish a Pacific defense school to train neighboring armies in response to China’s potential military presence on the Solomon Islands on Australia’s doorstep. It also wants to tackle climate change with a more ambitious 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Morrison's Liberal party-led coalition was seeking a fourth three-year term. It holds the narrowest of majorities — 76 seats in the 151-member House of Representatives, where parties need a majority to form a government. In early counting on Saturday, the coalition was on track to win 38 seats, Labor 71, seven were unaligned lawmakers and 23 were too close to call. Minor parties and independents appeared to be taking votes from the major parties, which increases the likelihood of a hung parliament and a minority government. Australia most recent hung parliaments were from 2010-13, and during World War II. A record proportion of postal votes because of the pandemic, which won’t be added to the count until Sunday, adds to the uncertainty in early counting. As well as campaigning against Labor, Morrison’s conservative Liberals fought off a new challenge from so-called teal independent candidates to key government lawmakers’ reelection in party strongholds. At least four Liberal lawmakers appeared to have lost their seats to teal independents including Liberal Party deputy leader Josh Frydenberg, who had been considered Morrison’s most likely successor. “What we have achieved here is extraordinary,” teal candidate and former foreign correspondent Zoe Daniels said in her victory speech. “Safe Liberal seat. Two-term incumbent. Independent,” she added. The teal independents are marketed as a greener shade than the Liberal Party’s traditional blue color and want stronger government action on reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions than either the government or Labor are proposing. Also read: Australia to send armored vehicles to Ukraine after request The government’s Senate leader Simon Birmingham was concerned by big swings toward several teal candidates. “It is a clear problem that we are losing seats that are heartland seats, that have defined the Liberal Party for generations,” Birmingham said. “If we lose those seats — it is not certain that we will — but there is clearly a big movement against us and there is clearly a big message in it,” Birmingham added. Due to the pandemic, around half of Australia’s 17 million electors have voted early or applied for postal votes, which will likely slow the count. Voting is compulsory for adult citizens and 92% of registered voters cast ballots at the last election. Early polling for reasons of travel or work began two weeks ago and the Australian Electoral Commission will continue collecting postal votes for another two weeks. The government changed regulations on Friday to enable people recently infected with COVID-19 to vote over the phone. Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said more than 7,000 polling stations opened as planned and on time across Australia despite 15% of polling staff falling sick this week with COVID-19 and flu. Albanese said he had thought Morrison would have called the election last weekend because Australia’s prime minister is expected at a Tokyo summit on Tuesday with U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “If we get a clear outcome today then whoever is prime minister will be on a plane to Tokyo on Monday, which isn’t ideal, I’ve got to say, immediately after a campaign,” Albanese said. Analysts have said that Morrison left the election until the latest date available to him to give himself more time to reduce Labor’s lead in opinion polls.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for more dams to be built to boost the country's flood resilience on Sunday, acknowledging the role of climate change in flooding that has hit Australia's northeast. However, he said that instead of focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, more needed to be done to mitigate the impacts of future floods and fires. At least 20 people have died and thousands of buildings have been destroyed in floods that began late in February when parts of Queensland and New South Wales received a year's worth of rain in a matter of days. "Dealing with climate change isn't just about getting emissions down, it's about resilience and adaptation," he told Nine Network television. "You want to deal with resilience on bushfires, you have to do fuel load management," he said. "You want to deal with floods, you have to build dams." READ: Major floods swamp Australia's east coast, claiming 7 lives The federal government has been criticized for failing to immediately deploy resources including the Australian Defense Force (ADF) to the flood zone. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday rejected federal assistance, saying it was offered too late and criticizing Morrison for funding only three of the 20 flood mitigation measures she has proposed since November 2020. In response, Morrison said the federal government deployed resources as quickly as it could.

Britain and Australia had agreed on a free trade deal that will be released later Tuesday, Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan said. The agreement is the first for Britain since it left the European Union. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison had reached agreement on the deal during negotiations in London, Tehan said. Read:Odds of settling US-EU trade rifts? Hope may outrun progress “Both prime ministers have held a positive meeting in London overnight and have resolved outstanding issues in relation to the FTA,” Tehan said in a statement, referring to the Free Trade Agreement. “Their agreement is a win for jobs, businesses, free trade and highlights what two liberal democracies can achieve while working together,” Tehan added. Both prime ministers would make a formal announcement on Tuesday morning in London and release further information, he said. Tehan said he spoke to Morrison on Tuesday. Australian Agriculture Minister David Littleproud described the deal as a “in-principle agreement.” Read:OPEC to boost oil output as economies recover, prices rise “The details are being nutted out from the in-principle agreement that our two prime ministers were able to get to last night over dinner,” Littleproud told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Our departments and the Trade Department are working through feverishly to make sure that an announcement can be made at our time tonight so that Australians will see exactly what is in that in-principle agreement,” he added. The agreement is Australia’s 15th free trade agreement. RMIT University international business expert Gabriele Suder said the deal was good news for both Britain and Australia. Read:Australian court upholds ban on most international travel “It’s wonderful news for the U.K. ... in particular because this is the first post-Brexit deal that has been really constructed from scratch, negotiated from scratch, and in addition has been negotiated in a record time of just one year, which is very, very unusual for free trade agreement negotiations,” Suder said. Britain is Australia’s fifth-largest trading partner. Suder said she expected the deal would add 1.3 billion Australian dollars ($1 billion) a year to the Australian economy.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has suffered a blow to his approval rating amid the ongoing bushfire crisis.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended his leadership and his government's record on climate change Sunday as milder temperatures brought hope of a respite from wildfires that have ravaged three states, claiming 24 lives and destroying almost 2,000 homes.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologized Sunday for taking a family vacation in Hawaii as deadly bushfires raged across several states, destroying homes and claiming the lives of two volunteer firefighters.