CANBERRA: Australia's new centre-left Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese
took office Monday a few hours before flying out to attend an international summit in Tokyo.
Albanese, who says Australia is willing to engage with the world on climate change, will join a summit Tuesday with the US, Japanese and Indian leaders, known as the
Quad
.
The 59-year-old new prime minister was sworn in at a brief ceremony in Government House, Canberra.
Other members of his team to take office included Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who will join
Albanese
at the Quad summit, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.
Albanese joined the left-wing
Labor Party
while still in high school and later became deeply involved in the bruising world of student politics at the University of Sydney.
The aspiring politician was the first person in his family to go to university and has said his working-class roots shaped his worldview.
In the 26 years since Albanese was first elected to parliament, Labor has only held government for five years -- during the tumultuous terms of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
Albanese first became a minister after Rudd's 2007 election victory and rose through the Labor ranks, finally taking over the opposition leadership after the party's crushing loss in 2019.
Three years on, he was sworn in as prime minister on Monday -- only the fourth Labor leader since world war 2 to do so from opposition.