Australia: Anthony Albanese and Labor claim landslide election win as Peter Dutton loses seat
Albanese vows to make Medicare stronger for all Australians
In short:
Labor’s landslide victory will see Anthony Albanese extend his majority in the House of Representatives.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was the biggest casualty, losing not just the election but his own seat.
What’s next:
Counting will continue for days, leaving the Greens and some Liberals facing nervous waits to see if they can hold their seats.
Voters have delivered Labor a landslide election win, giving the government a second term that has defied early polls and offered a punishing repudiation of the Coalition.
ABC News is forecasting that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government will add seats to its majority in the House of Representatives.
“We take out this task with new hope, new confidence and new determination,” he said.
The biggest political victim of the result was Liberal leader Peter Dutton, who lost his seat to three-time Labor challenger Ali France, with the Coalition’s primary vote slumping to record lows.
In an election centred on the cost of living, Labor has not just held but gained seats at the expense of Liberals, some of whom were regarded as possible future leaders.
The government has not only retained mortgage-belt seats, but claimed Coalition electorates in the outer metropolitan suburbs.
Nationally, Labor’s primary vote increased and there were historic highs for minor parties and independents, with the possibility of new additions in the next parliament.
The Greens face a nervous few days in three seats, having already lost one.
But the party will remain a key crossbench force in the Senate, where despite the Coalition likely going backwards, Labor will need support to pass legislation.
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Peter Dutton concedes defeat in the federal election.
Coalition seats sink to new low
Coalition MPs and senators called for calm as early results rolled in, pinning their hope on pre-poll votes falling in their favour.
But by 8:30pm, ABC chief election analyst Antony Green said he could not see a path to victory for the Coalition, and forecasted likely gains for Labor.
“We did not do well enough during this campaign, that much is obvious tonight, and I accept full responsibility for that,” Mr Dutton told party supporters in Brisbane.
Labor started the campaign notionally with 78 seats, two more than it needed for a majority.
The Coalition was already on record-low numbers in the House of Representatives, and will fall further back after this election.
In winning, Mr Albanese becomes the first leader since John Howard to lead their party to two election victories.
The Coalition pinned its hopes on wins in mortgage belts throughout Sydney and Melbourne, where indebted households have felt the cost-of-living crisis the harshest.
But Labor is on track to not just hold these seats but also make gains in Coalition-held seats in Queensland and Melbourne’s east.
“This is a time of profound opportunity for our nation,” Mr Albanese said.
“We have everything we need to seize this moment and make it our own, but we must do it together.”
Queensland and Tasmania turn red
The sunshine state has offered little reward for Labor in recent elections, but the ALP scored wins throughout outer-suburban areas that surround Brisbane, including Mr Dutton’s Dickon and Bonner, Petrie, Forde and the Greens-held Griffith.
It also capitalised on long-serving Liberal Warren Entsch’s retirement, with former professional basketballer Matt Smith.
Labor also ran up victories in the two Liberal seats across the top of Tasmania, including the outspoken opposition backbencher Bridget Archer, who had a flair for bucking her party’s stance. The Liberals no longer have any lower house MPs in Tasmania.
In South Australia, Labor’s gain of Christopher Pyne’s once-safe seat leaves the Liberals with just two lower house seats in the state.
“This is a win for the ages,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the ABC.
Independents largely maintain seats
It was a night of mixed fortunes for independents and the Greens, despite the surge in third-party votes.
Voting will take days, if not weeks, to determine the final composition of the parliament.
The teal independents, having swept through Liberal heartlands in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth three years ago, look set to hold their seats, with the possibility of new community independents joining their ranks.
In the ACT seat of Bean, there was a wafer-thin margin between independent Jessie Price and Labor’s David Smith, who could be the government’s only casualty.
National-turned-independent Andrew Gee leads in his rural NSW electorate of Calare, while regional independents Alex Dyson in Victoria’s Wannon and Caz Heise in NSW’s Cowper look to fall short again.
It will likely take days, if not longer, to work out other seats where independents could be in with a chance.
Among the seats still yet to be called is Sydney’s Bradfield, which was seen as one of the teals’ best chances. Independent Nicolette Boele, who ran at the last election, was tied with Liberal Gisele Kapterian, who is running for the first time.
ACT independent senator David Pocock was comfortably re-elected to the crossbench.
Independent Dai Le, who won the Western Sydney seat of Fowler from Labor in 2022, was only just ahead of the ALP’s Tu Le late last night.
Tough night for Greens
It is a nervous wait for the Greens, including leader Adam Bandt.
One of the Greens’ most high-profile politicians, Max Chandler-Mather, lost his seat to Labor. In neighbouring Brisbane, incumbent Stephen Bates looks set to lose, with Labor well placed to win the seat ahead of the LNP.
The Coalition expected to win back Ryan, which neighbours Mr Dutton’s seat, but early votes have the Greens ahead.
The party capitalised on changing demographics in the northern NSW seat of Richmond, which takes in Byron Bay, where it was ahead on primary votes but likely to fall behind on preferences. If the Greens win, it will be at the expense of Labor frontbencher Justine Elliot.
It fell well short in the Melbourne seat of Mcnamara, home to one of the country’s biggest Jewish populations, but fared better in Wills, where it will likely fall short after preferences.
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Tony Barry says the Coalition’s nuclear policy “turbo-charged” its loss.
‘Soul searching’ for Coalition
The Coalition hoped it could capitalise on the unpopularity of the long-serving Victorian Labor government.
But former Victorian Liberal state director Tony Barry suggested the Liberal Party could be reduced to just one seat in greater Melbourne.
He offered a scathing assessment that “soul searching” was in order for the Coalition, having started the campaign with eight of Victoria’s 38 seats and hoping to gain up to 10 seats.
Labor was bracing for hits in its Western Sydney electorates, where the Israel-Gaza conflict prompted community independents to run in safe ALP seats.
Electorates with high numbers of Chinese Australian voters — a key demographic that moved against the Coalition at the last election — again stuck with Labor, costing Liberal Keith Wolahan his seat in Menzies, and helping Labor retain Bennelong, which had notionally moved to the opposition following a redistribution.
The ALP also held off Coalition challenges in the NSW Hunter region, which was thought to be a possible home to opposition gains thanks to the energy transformation the region is undergoing.
Labor also snatched the seats of Banks and Hughes from the Liberals.
“Tonight, together, we start the new chapter,” Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong told party supporters.
In early counts in WA, Labor looked on track to retain its seats, including the nation’s most indebted, Pearce, and was in a tight race in the new seat of Bullwinkel.
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Jim Chalmers pays tribute to Anthony Albanese’s leadership.
‘Great political victory’
Labor put health care at the core of its campaign, promising free GP visits and cheaper medicines as key cost-of-living measures.
It benefited from the spectre of Donald Trump’s presidency, which equally savaged the Coalition’s campaign.
Mr Albanese used Mr Trump’s trade wars to remind voters of global uncertainty, pitching to voters that now was not the time for change.
The Coalition campaign too suffered from a series of policy capitulations during the campaign, including its contentious work-from-home policy that was junked in the second week.
Mr Chalmers conceded “we were in all sorts of trouble” at the end of last year but paid tribute to Mr Albanese for delivering the result.
“He has pulled off one of the great political victories since federation,” he said.
ABC
