CANBERRA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Australia's 48th federal parliament has officially been opened by Prime Minister (PM) Anthony Albanese following May's general election.
Albanese on Tuesday morning opened the 48th session of the federal legislature during a ceremony in the Great Hall at Parliament House in Canberra.
The commencement of the parliament comes more than two months after Albanese's Labor Party won a second term in government in a landslide victory at the May 3 election.
Addressing Tuesday morning's ceremony after a traditional Aboriginal acknowledgement, Albanese urged all 226 elected members of the federal parliament to write Australia's "next chapter" with grace and courage.
Earlier on Tuesday, the prime minister said that every day in the new parliament would be an "opportunity" for his government to deliver for Australians.
Following the election, Labor holds 94 out of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, the equal-most by any party in history, and 28 of the 76 seats in the Senate.
The conservative Liberal-National Coalition holds 43 lower house seats and 27 in the Senate.
Coalition leader Sussan Ley said on Tuesday morning that the opposition party is at a "low point" in the wake of the historic election defeat but promised to work hard to hold the government to account.
The 48th parliament will turn to legislative affairs on Wednesday. Albanese has previously said his re-elected government's first priority will be legislation to deliver its election promise to cut higher education student loan debts by 20 percent. ■
