Australia's Labor Party leader, Anthony Albanese, was sworn in as the country's 31st prime minister on Monday, promising a "journey of change."

Opinion polls suggest the conservative Liberal Party-led coalition will lose its bid for a third three-year term and Scott Morrison will have had one of the shortest tenures as prime minister in the 118-year history of the Australian federation.

"Australians will be rightly appalled by what they're witnessing," said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.