The Times - UK (2022-05-23)

the times | Monday May 23 2022 33

Italian opera seeks

chorus of approval

from Unesco

Page 34

Anthony Albanese, the new prime

minister of Australia, has vowed to “end

the climate wars” in the country and

fight global warming, after an election

victory that could allow his Labor party

to rule on its own.

Albanese, 59, hailed his win over the

Liberal leader Scott Morrison as “a big

moment” and promised that he would

“change the country... change the way

politics works” after almost a decade of

conservative rule. Polling showed that

Labor could gain at least 76 seats in par-

liament, a de facto majority. Morrison,

54, wept in church yesterday, before

reading passages from the Bible about

failure.

Albanese’s pledge to tackle climate

change comes after years of rising tem-

peratures and “black summers” of wild-

fires, floods and droughts.

“We are the greatest country on

earth, but we can have an even better

future if we seize the opportunities that

are right there in front of us,” Albanese

said in his victory speech on Saturday

evening. “Together we can end the cli-

mate wars. Together we can take ad-

vantage of the opportunity to be a

renewable energy superpower.”

Although Labor’s policies are more

ambitious than those of the previous

government, many environmentalists

argue they do not go far enough. The

party has pledged a 43 per cent reduc-

tion in greenhouse gas emissions by

2030 and net zero by 2050 — in con-

trast to the Liberals, who had commit-

ted to net zero only recently. However,

Albanese has so far refused to ban coal

in power stations or to block new mines.

He faces a race to form a government

and be sworn in today, in time for talks

in Tokyo tomorrow with President Bid-

en, Narendra Modi, the prime minister

of India, and Fumio Kishida, his coun-

terpart in Japan, who comprise

the Quad security coalition.

It will be the first meeting

since the invasion of

Ukraine and comes amid

growing concern at

China’s assertiveness in

the Indo-Pacific.

Albanese appealed for

a fairer Australia, saying

his government’s priority

would be to seek reconcilia-

tion with Aboriginal people

through a truth commission to address

past injustices and a statutory voice in

parliament.

Labor’s most expensive cam-

paign promise, a A$5.4 billion

(£3 billion) plan to boost child-

care subsidies to drive up

women’s employment, is also at

the top of the agenda.

Morrison told fel-

low Pentecostal

worshippers in

Sydney he was

“very pleased

that the last

thing I say as

PM is here”.

His Liberal-

National

coalition was on course to win 52

seats — 24 seats fewer than in 2019.

The election of six women as inde-

pendents in well-heeled govern-

ment seats in Sydney, Melbourne

and Perth — all with an agenda to

confront climate change rapidly

— also gutted the conservative

vote. Morrison, who became prime

minister after a party coup in

2018, said he would stand

down as Liberal leader.

The Greens had their

best election, being on

track to add three seats to

the one they had.

New leader urges

end to Australia’s

climate conflict

Australia

Bernard Lagan Sydney

Profile

A

ustralia’s new prime

minister is an old-

school Labor brawler

who crunches vowels

as easily as opponents

(Bernard Lagan writes).

For years cartoonists delighted

in “Albo’s” crooked teeth, his

dishevelled clothes and unkempt

locks. His appearance belied his

training as an economist with

a sharp mind suited to politics,

“I’ve been underestimated my

whole life. My whole life has

been one whereby I haven’t got a

leg up,” he said as the election

campaign began last month.

The product of a fleeting union

between his unmarried mother

and an Italian cruise ship

steward, Albanese was raised

in a Sydney council flat, believing

that his absent father had died in

a car crash. His mother later told

him the truth, leading Albanese

to Bari, Puglia, in 2009 for a

happy reconciliation with his

father, Carlo.

An MP since 1996 and a

minister in the 2007 Labor

government of Kevi Rudd,

Albanese seized the leadership

after Labor lost the 2019 election.

He was seen as a stopgap, lacking

the polish to be prime minister,

but embarked on what must rank

as one of the most extraordinary

rebirths in Australian history.

His wife of 18 years left him and

he shed 18kg before finding a

new partner, Jodie Haydon. He

dumped long-held radical

positions and settled into a more

trim and mellow self — a far cry

from the leftwing firebrand he

once was.

Despite this, his roots still

matter. “To my mum

who’s beaming down on

us, thank you,” he told

ecstatic supporters on

Saturday night. “And

I hope there are

families in public

[council] housing

watching this tonight.”

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the state of Rio Grande do

Sul, is bidding for global

fame with one of the

world’s largest statues of

Christ.

Rio’s Christ the

Redeemer has stood on

Mount Corcovado since

1931 at 38m (125ft) tall.

But Christ the Protector,

opened last month in

Encantado, is five metres

higher. Its creators,

Genesio Gomes Moura

and his son, Markus, say it

is also more detailed than

Rio’s statue, with “more

lifelike hair, facial

features, and a fuller

robe”.

The statue, which has

an arm span of 39 metres,

features a glass-encased

heart that will be

the pedestal is included,

and Poland’s Christ the

King stands 51m tall.

Encantado’s Christ was

the brainchild of

Adroaldo Conzatti, the

town’s mayor, to boost

tourism. However, he will

never get to see his

brainchild completed: he

died from Covid-19 in

March last year.

accessible via a lift once it

is fully complete next

year.

The £250,000 project

was funded by private

donation.

However, despite being

the latest Christ on the

scene, it is still not the

biggest. Indonesia’s Jesus

Buntu Burake takes the

crown, at 52.5 metres, if

SILVIO AVILA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

for lowly team transforming baseball

is held up to the crowd like Simba in The

Lion King.

Not everyone has been won over,

however. Traditionalists have objected

to “Banana ball” and claim it has deviat-

ed too far from the game’s roots.

“Some people think that we’re doing

terrible things for the game of baseball,

making a bit of a mockery of it,” Kyle

Luigs, a dancing pitcher for the Banan-

as, said. “But what we’re seeing now-

adays is attendances at an all-time low

and the attraction toward the game and

the younger generations of kids want-

ing to play is slowly dying off. So there

does need to be a change.”

PT Barnum, wanted to turn baseball on

its head, complaining that the sport had

become “too long, too slow and too bor-

ing”.

With his wife Emily, 35, Coles put all

their savings into the team. The couple

slept on an air mattress after selling

their home to fund the dream.

When he arrived in Savannah in 2015

only 200 fans were attending games but

Cole stuck to the maxim of “if you build

it, they will come” and now a sell-out

crowd of 4,000 attends every match

and there is a waiting list of 50,000 for

tickets. Cole said four teams from Major

League Baseball had been in touch

about hosting Bananas games at their

stadiums and he has plans to go global.

“If I were a betting man, I would bet

we’d be playing in London some time in

the next five years,” he said.

Baseball was once America’s favour-

ite game but has struggled to attract

younger fans in recent years, with

grumbles about slow play dragging

matches on for too long. Such com-

plaints cannot be levelled at the Banan-

as. A carnival atmosphere at each game

includes an elderly dance team known

as the Banana Nanas and a pitcher who

throws the ball while on stilts. Before

play begins a baby in a banana costume

Scott Morrison was in

tears; joy for Anthony

Albanese, above

The 43m statue of

Christ the Protector

in Encantado will

have a lift to take

visitors to its

glass-encased heart