Where will Anthony Albanese live when Prime Minister
As the dust settles after a wild six weeks of campaigning and Anthony Albanese is named Australia’s next PM, one nagging question remains.
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As the dust settles after a wild six weeks of campaigning and Anthony Albanese is named Australia’s next prime minister, one nagging question remains — where will he live?
The man who grew up in a housing estate in Sydney’s inner west not far from his current home in Marrickville has a decision to make about what happens next.
Speaking exclusively to news.com.au’s Samantha Maiden last week when the election was still up for grabs, Albo revealed he will leave Marrickville to live at the Lodge in Canberra or Kirribilli House on Sydney Harbour with his dog, Toto.
His neighbours, he said, would not like a continuation of the heavy security presence that has surrounded his current residence.
“Well, I think that my neighbours might not like me staying in Marrickville due to the significant up in security that has had to occur during the campaign,’’ he said.
The Lodge or Kirribilli House will be home to not just Mr Albanese.
“One thing that I do know is that wherever I go, Toto will be going with me,” he said of the family dog who often appears in the Labor leader’s social media photographs and who accompanied him to vote on Saturday.
It is unclear whether Mr Albanese’s partner Jodie Haydon will go with him. His son, Nathan, from his marriage to former NSW Labor MP Carmel Tebbutt, could move in to one of the PM’s official residences given the pair currently share a home.
“I do have a way of making sure that I talk to my son every day,’’ he told news.com.au of the pair’s close relationship.
“And that to me is a good-luck charm. He’s still studying. He’s completing his degree. He’s 21.
“We’re close, we live together. He also spends time at his mother’s. But I’m very proud of him. He’s developed into a very fine young man.”
For decades Australian prime ministers traditionally lived at the Lodge in Canberra until John Howard and Scott Morrison decamped to Kirribilli House on Sydney Harbour for family reasons.
Mr Albanese said last week that it would be “presumptuous” to reveal where he planned to live full-time or whether his new partner Jodi would be moving in.
“I have not reached any conclusions on any matters that will pre-empt the result of the Australian people, I think to do that would be very presumptuous. And I will turn my attention to that if we are successful on Saturday,” he said.
“My job is to ensure that Labor maximises the vote, I am committed to working for a majority Labor government because of the stability that that brings. So I’ll be campaigning to get at least 76 Labor members of the House of Representatives elected next Saturday.”
Speaking on Saturday night after securing the nation’s top job, an emotional Mr Albanese thanked Australia for the “extraordinary honour”.
“Tonight the Australian people have voted for change. I am humbled by this victory. And I am honoured to be given the opportunity to serve as the 31st Prime Minister of Australia,” he said.
“My Labor team will work every day to bring Australians together. And I will lead a government worthy of the people of Australia. A government as courageous and hardworking and caring as the Australian people are themselves.”
He thanked Mr Morrison for his “gracious” congratulations and for his service, before acknowledging his own humble beginnings.
“My fellow Australians, it says a lot about our great country that a son of a single mum who was a disability pensioner, who grew up in public housing down the road in Camperdown, can stand before you tonight as Australia’s Prime Minister,” he said.
“During this campaign I have put forward a positive, clear plan for a better future for our country. And I have shared the two principles that will a government that I lead. No-one left behind because we should always look after the disadvantaged and the vulnerable.
“But also no-one held back, because we should always support aspiration and opportunity.”
How Albanese met his partner
Speaking in an exclusive interview with News Corp investigations editor Ellen Whinnett in April, Ms Haydon shared snippets of her previously closed-doors relationship with the opposition leader.
“I slid into his DMs,’’ Haydon confessed.
“He had a public profile and I didn’t, so I knew that we both followed the same footy team, we both had a love for the inner west and I think I said in that direct message ‘hey, we’re both single.’
“In some ways I think I said that … just more so that he would feel comfortable in my company.’’
Ms Haydon said she wasn’t expecting to find love and admitted she was took by surprise at how well they hit it off.
“I had been single for a long time when I met Anthony,’’ she said.
“I certainly thought – and I don’t mean this to sound pathetic – but I honestly thought love wasn’t going to happen for me. I’d gotten to the point in my life where I was really happy with my career.
“I was happy being single and I remember people would always say ‘oh it will happen when you least expect it’ and I used to find it patronising.
“I’d think yeah, okay. And I’m not here to say it’s a fairy-tale but genuinely, when we met, I certainly didn’t have expectations that it was going to be a relationship.”
Albo’s rise to the country’s highest position
The son of a single mother who grew up in an inner Sydney public housing estate, Anthony Norman Albanese famously overcame a humble childhood to emerge as one of the most powerful players in Australian politics 26-year career.
Mr Albanese first won the seat of Grayndler in Sydney’s inner west back in 1996, and since then, he has steadily risen through the ranks of the ALP, having been first appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001.
In June 2013, he was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, and a day later was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister, a role he held until Labor’s defeat at the 2013 election.
He then announced his candidacy as leader, although Bill Shorten ultimately succeeded after a month-long contest that was the first to involve a combined vote of MPs and rank-and-file members.
While Mr Albanese won a large majority of the membership at the time, Mr Shorten secured more MP votes, and was able to nab the top job.
Mr Albanese was then appointed Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Shadow Minister for Tourism, and later Shadow Minister for Cities.
Following Shorten’s resignation after the 2019 election loss, Mr Albanese was elected as leader unopposed, after Chris Bowen pulled out of the race.
While critics blasted Mr Albanese’s election campaign stumbles and slammed a perceived lack of big policy announcements, the 59-year-old has obviously done an impressive job, trouncing Morrison in the first and last leaders’ debate while the second ended in a tie, before finally defeating him at the polls.
— with Samantha Maiden and Alexis Carey
Originally published as Where will Anthony Albanese live when Prime Minister
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