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It was indeed a bruising night for Dutton, a 54-year-old political veteran who also lost his parliamentary seat of 24 years to a candidate from Albanese's Labor Party.

Grange Chung, who is contesting the New South Wales' seat of Reid, held by the left-leaning Labor party with a 3.2% margin, said in a video on WeChat that he chose to start his career in the navy "to give back to the country that embraced my family when we arrived with very little".

Despite making up just 5.5% of Australia's population, Chinese Australians were said to be a crucial to the Labor party's win in 2022, which broke nearly a decade of rule by the Liberal-National coalition.

In the final few days of campaigning before up to 18 million Australians go to the polls, the Labor Party's Albanese, who entered power three years ago after promising to invest in social services and tackle climate change, went on a speedy tour of six states.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Albanese said that he was proud of his Labor Party's economic record, adding that he "delivered responsible economic management".