Victoria confounds Liberal hopes of revival by swinging further to Labor
Fears of a Labor bloodbath in Victoria in the federal election were utterly confounded, with the Liberals recording a statewide swing against them and the party all but certain to lose several seats.
Late on Saturday night, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, Labor had won 23 of the state’s 38 seats while the Coalition was at six – three held by the Nationals and three by the Liberals. Independents had three, with six still in doubt. The Liberals had seen a swing of nearly 2% away from them.
The Liberals had campaigned hard in the state, running advertising tying Anthony Albanese to the long-serving and poor-polling state Labor government, led by Jacinta Allan, in the hope of clawing back outer suburban seats such as Aston, Chisholm, Dunkley and McEwen, and gaining seats such as Bruce, Hawke and Gorton.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Even senior members of Victorian Labor expected a swing away from the party of about 1.5%-2.5% – with some members of the state caucus actively considering a leadership challenge against Allan if several seats were lost.
But instead, there was a swing of about 1.8% towards the party, on top of the 54.8% two-party-preferred result in 2022, itself a high-water mark.
Labor was expected to hold Chisholm, Dunkley and Aston, as well as winning the seats of Deakin and Menzies from the Liberals.
In Deakin, one of the most marginal seats going into the election, Labor’s Matt Gregg was expected to defeat the Coalition housing spokesperson, Michael Sukkar, while in Menzies, Labor’s Gabriel Ng was on track to take the seat from the Liberal MP Keith Wolahan.
For more, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Benita Kolovos and Henry Belot:
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Updated at 23.52 EDT
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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has sent congratulations to Anthony Albanese on his electoral victory saying “that the result was called so swiftly on election night speaks volumes – a clear and confident verdict from the Australian people”.
Australia plays a pivotal role in the Asia Pacific. The Albanese government’s attention to Southeast Asia during its first term did not go unnoticed, and we hope that spirit of engagement will continue.
As our region faces new tests and transformations, we look forward to working together to uphold stability, enhance resilience, and shape a future of shared prosperity.
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Environmentalists dance on grave of Coalition’s nuclear policy
Environment groups opposed to the Coalition’s plan for an atomic Australia have taken a victory lap around the party’s defeat at the election saying voters had delivered a clear rejection of nuclear power.
Dave Sweeney, nuclear free campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation said in a joint statement the door on nuclear power is “not just closed, it is welded shut”.
Nuclear power is too slow, too risky and too costly – in every way.
The economic, environmental and community advantages of renewables have been embraced by Australians. Today we are nearly halfway there with around 45% of Australia’s electricity coming from renewables. Our job – and the governments mandate ‒ is to speedily, sensibly and sustainably advance the renewable energy future.
It’s time to stop playing politics with nuclear distractions and delays. It’s time to get on with the clean energy transition, effective climate action and building an energy future that is renewable, not radioactive.
Activists at Pine Rivers Park in Moreton Bay, Queensland last week. Photograph: Jono Searle/AAP
Dr Jim Green, national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth said there was “overwhelming evidence” Coalition’s nuclear policy played a role in its electoral defeat.
Polling by the Liberals Against Nuclear group demonstrated the nuclear policy’s drag on the Coalition’s vote in marginal seats and across the nation.
Forty-six percent of voters in Peter Dutton’s electorate of Dickson said they were less likely to vote for Mr Dutton because of the nuclear power policy.
In 2007, the Coalition took a pro-nuclear power policy to the election but suffered a large swing against it and lost the election with leader John Howard losing his seat. Yesterday, the Coalition suffered a large swing against it and lost the election with leader Peter Dutton losing his seat.
The lesson should be clear. The Coalition’s nuclear power policy must be buried once and for all.
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Updated at 00.20 EDT
Oil and gas industry congratulates Albanese, takes a swipe at Greens
Australia’s oldest and most enduring oil and gas industry association has congratulated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his government’s re-election, saying it “looks forward to continuing to work with the government on necessary reforms”.
Australian Energy Producers chief executive Samantha McCulloch said “continued investment in new gas exploration” was needed to ensure a “reliable and affordable gas supply”.
We look forward to working with the Albanese government on advancing the shared goal of boosting Australian gas supply to ensure reliable and affordable energy for Australian homes and businesses, as outlined in the Future Gas Strategy and Australian Energy Producers’ election policy platform.
McCulloch said the government needed to prioritise implementing actions from the Future Gas Strategy and address the regulatory delays and uncertainty in the environmental approvals system.
McCulloch also thanked the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and the Coalition for the support given to the industry and said the result also showed Australians’ “do not support the Greens’ reckless policies, including a ban on new gas projects”.
With cost of living top of mind for voters, the Greens cannot be allowed to continue to hold legislation to ransom in the Senate.
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Updated at 23.50 EDT
Government must protect Australia’s environment, Marine Conservation Society says
The Albanese government must to do more to protect Australia’s oceans, reefs and wildlife now it has won the election with the next term of government “both an opportunity and a test”, the Australian Marine Conservation Society says.
AMCS chief executive Paul Gamblin offered congratulations to prime minister Anthony Albanese and the Labor party, but said its next term “must not repeat the mistakes of the last one”.
The prime minister declared that this was an election about Australian values. What could be more core to our values than stepping up to take much better care of our incredible environment?
We stand at a crossroads. Australia’s oceans, among the most biodiverse on the planet, face escalating threats — from the clear and present danger of climate change, habitat loss and pollution, to unsustainable fishing and industrialisation of the coast.
This election result is both an opportunity and a test. The previous Labor government began with momentum and promises on climate and nature laws but lost its way. We are already halfway through the critical decade. The time for incrementalism is over. It’s time we consider future generations with the resolve that deserves.
Labor was re-elected on the promise of progress, and Australians expect and deserve strong national environment laws and real action to curb fossil fuel expansion. This must be the term where promises are kept.
The dual climate and nature crises are existential — and if we are serious about securing prosperity, progress and our way of life, as the prime minister outlined in his victory speech, the government must move fast and with ambition for all Australians.
Our world famous coral reefs were bleaching on both the east and west coasts as underwater bushfires raged, all during the election campaign, starkly illustrating the climate crisis unfolding in real time. Meanwhile, polling showed climate action remained a top concern for millions of Australians.
Tracing the worst coral bleaching event in recorded history – videoShare
Updated at 23.41 EDT
Andrew Bolt says it was the voters who were wrong as Sky News commentators grieve Dutton election loss
It was a result that Andrew Bolt was not expecting – and could not countenance.
By 9.46pm the rightwing commentator had penned a piece on the Herald Sun blaming the Australian electorate for the Coalition loss.
“No, the voters aren’t always right. This time they were wrong,” Bolt wrote.
The reason for the loss? It was because the Liberal party “refused to fight the ‘culture wars’”.
Commentator Andrew Bolt says the Coalition lost the federal election because they ‘refused to fight the ‘culture wars’. Photograph: Sky News Australia/AP
A little over an hour earlier on Sky News Australia, he had recognised it was all over for the Liberal leader that he had dubbed Scary Guy. He was unsentimental about the loss.
Peter Dutton was comprehensively beaten by Anthony Albanese, Bolt said, because everyone agreed the prime minister looked like a “nice easygoing guy” compared with Dutton.
For more on this story, read the full write up by Guardian Australia’s Amanda Meade:
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Updated at 23.21 EDT
Peter Dutton to blame for scale of Liberal loss, Laxale says
Josh Butler
Re-elected Labor MP Jerome Laxale had one answer when asked what mattered most to his constituents in Bennelong:
Peter Dutton.
Laxale, the first-term MP, has been returned to Bennelong with what looks like a thumping majority around 60-40. His ultra-marginal seat turned notionally Liberal after a boundary redistribution, but Laxale – praised by several Labor people in the last 18 hours as one of their strongest and best campaigners – has turned the seat, formerly held by John Howard, safely Labor.
He joined PM Albanese for a coffee this morning in Leichhardt. That Laxale was with Albanese in his first appearance after election night shows how big Labor thinks this result is.
Jerome Laxale speaks to voters at a polling booth in Bennelong. ‘They had no vision for housing.’ Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Asked for his election analysis on the way out of the cafe, Laxale pointed to Liberal “flip flops” on policies like nuclear, work from home and cost of living as major negatives for Dutton’s campaign.
They had no vision for housing. This is what cost the Liberals in Bennelong, and we had the opposites. We had plans, we worked hard, we had conversations, and we didn’t try and buy the seat.
Asked by a reporter what mattered most to his voters, Laxale simply said “Peter Dutton”.
We went to the election with the delivery of the last three years, but there’s also more to do. We acknowledge that there’s more to do on cost of living, housing, and I think people backed us.
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Updated at 23.13 EDT
Victoria confounds Liberal hopes of revival by swinging further to Labor
Fears of a Labor bloodbath in Victoria in the federal election were utterly confounded, with the Liberals recording a statewide swing against them and the party all but certain to lose several seats.
Late on Saturday night, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, Labor had won 23 of the state’s 38 seats while the Coalition was at six – three held by the Nationals and three by the Liberals. Independents had three, with six still in doubt. The Liberals had seen a swing of nearly 2% away from them.
The Liberals had campaigned hard in the state, running advertising tying Anthony Albanese to the long-serving and poor-polling state Labor government, led by Jacinta Allan, in the hope of clawing back outer suburban seats such as Aston, Chisholm, Dunkley and McEwen, and gaining seats such as Bruce, Hawke and Gorton.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Even senior members of Victorian Labor expected a swing away from the party of about 1.5%-2.5% – with some members of the state caucus actively considering a leadership challenge against Allan if several seats were lost.
But instead, there was a swing of about 1.8% towards the party, on top of the 54.8% two-party-preferred result in 2022, itself a high-water mark.
Labor was expected to hold Chisholm, Dunkley and Aston, as well as winning the seats of Deakin and Menzies from the Liberals.
In Deakin, one of the most marginal seats going into the election, Labor’s Matt Gregg was expected to defeat the Coalition housing spokesperson, Michael Sukkar, while in Menzies, Labor’s Gabriel Ng was on track to take the seat from the Liberal MP Keith Wolahan.
For more, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Benita Kolovos and Henry Belot:
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Updated at 23.52 EDT
Benita Kolovos
Allan was about the federal seat of Bendigo – her hometown – which has bucked the state trend and recorded a 10.5% swing away from Labor MP Lisa Chesters.
The premier denies the swing is a reflection on her association with the seat and instead credits a “cashed-up campaign” by the Nationals. Allan said:
The results in Bendigo are still too close to call. When you look at the campaign that Lisa Chesters has ran, which was focused on working people and families. Whereas the National party well, they ran a massively cashed up campaign, run from outside of Bendigo, importing people in from Queensland and they did everything they could to distance themselves from Peter Dutton and the Liberal party … and indeed, the Liberal party came fourth in Bendigo.
Allan says federal Labor had adopted many Victorian policies, including investing in healthcare and free Tafe and kinder:
Our focus on women’s health was something that’s been picked up by federal Labor and has been expanded across the nation, delivering free Tafe – that started here in Victoria – that’s been taken nationwide.
She said:
The results yesterday, they’re not despite what’s going on here in Victoria. They’re because of what’s going on here in Victoria.
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Updated at 22.37 EDT
Victorian premier lauds Albanese’s ‘emphatic’ win
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, held a press conference at the Northern hospital in Epping, in Melbourne’s north earlier this morning to mark the beginning of an $813m redevelopment of its emergency department.
She began by congratulating the prime minister Anthony Albanese on what she said was a “historic and emphatic” election win:
What we saw with yesterday’s results, Australians and Victorians … said no to Peter Dutton and the Liberals’ cuts. They said yes to … being able to make sure you could get in and see a GP, investments in healthcare, like what we’re marking here today at the Northern hospital, they most clearly said no to those nuclear plans and instead said yes to cheaper renewable energy.
In Victoria, there has been a swing of about 1.8% towards Labor, on top of the 54.8% two-party-preferred result in 2022, itself a high-water mark. This was despite fears – within the party – that Allan’s unpopularity would drag the vote down.
She said the result showed Victorians backed the government’s plans to build more homes, the long-awaited train line to Melbourne airport and the Suburban Rail Loop. Labor held Aston and won Deakin and Menzies – three seats that pass through the line in the eastern suburbs.
Allan said:
Victorians and Australians said an emphatic no to those blockers and said yes to building more homes, building the airport rail, building the suburban rail loop, and that also is a big yes to supporting the rights of workers, and protecting those workers, which we know are always under threat from a Liberal government.
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Updated at 22.34 EDT
Socialists aim for national expansion after positive result
The Australian Socialists are “absolutely” thinking of expanding nationally after a decent showing in the seats they ran in, Jordan van den Lamb says.
Lamb, known popularly by his social media handle, Purple Pingers, is a renters rights campaigner who ran for the Senate at the 2025 federal election.
The party edged close to double digits in parts of Victoria and picked up a share of votes in the Senate.
Speaking to 6 News Australia, Lamb said the minor party, started seven years ago, is “absolutely” thinking about whether it can expand beyond Victoria.
We have no way near hit our ceiling just yet, we’ve only got room to grow and we’ll continue to grow.
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Updated at 22.22 EDT
Josh Butler
Albanese laps up his victory in Leichhardt
After finishing up a coffee with his supporters in Leichhardt, PM Albanese has ducked into the front bar of the cafe and started scooping some gelato.
Doling out a few cones and cups of the sweet treat, Albanese jokes “every Italian knows how to do this”. (or at least that’s vaguely what it sounded like, the bustling cafe is packed with patrons craning their necks for a look.)
He tells one punter that last night’s election result was “humbling”. Albanese then jokes that they “scooped up more than a few” seats.
He bids the onlookers goodbye with a “ciao”.
Anthony Albanese scoops ice cream at Bar Italia in Leichhardt today. Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 22.10 EDT
Major parties taking voters for granted, Yee says
Independent Stella Yee, who didn’t make it across the line, tells the ABC that the major parties have been taking voters for granted “for a long time”.
Yee says Labor’s response to the siege on Gaza has played a role in her decision to run as an independent, along with its continued efforts to open more gas fields and coal mines.
It is the same old same old that have letters to this point. People have voted number one for me, sending a message that the two parties are just not good enough. A lot of our systems like sending gas for free and not charging multinationals tax and all of that, those are not correct settings for us. So we are sending this message.
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Updated at 22.07 EDT
Pocock wants housing treated as ‘fundamental human right’
Australians want housing treated as a human right, not an investment vehicle or wealth creation tool, Pocock says.
Do we want, going forward, housing to continue to be an investment vehicle, a wealth creation tool or are we going to start to turn the ship around and say no, this is a fundamental human right, something that everyone in our community should be able to access and afford?
I’m hearing from Canberrans that they wanted to be more of the human right than an investment vehicle.
Pocock says “neither major party” has been talking about structural reform and the need to deal with negative gearing and capital gains tax discount.
I will continue to push for really sensible solutions because if you talk to experts, you actually have to tackle the root causes of these challenges. You can’t just keep tinkering as things get worse and worse and worse, and try to sell that to the electorate as a way to get re-elected.
Senator David Pocock in Canberra on election night. Photograph: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 23.19 EDT
Pocock calls for big reforms: ‘People are sick of tinkering’
The balance of power is not necessary to make an impact for your community, Senator David Pocock says, and parliament has to do better “when it comes to overarching issues”.
From housing to health, climate, cost of living – people are sick of tinkering. My hope is that the Labor government after a huge victory will actually use that to change our country and the future of our nation for the better.
The senator said he wanted the NACC strengthened, gambling banned and lobbying reforms passed.
You have to hit the ground running as a territory senator. Those of the big things I have been hearing from Canberrans about, and it will be no surprise. Across the country, people are grappling with the growing intergenerational inequality.
The senator nominated housing as a critical issue, saying “our housing system is not working for us” but that the issue goes beyond housing to “the future of our country.
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Updated at 22.28 EDT
Pocock ‘very humbled’ after very strong Senate result
The independent senator David Pocock is speaking to the ABC where he says he is “very tired but really humbled” after a massive 20.85% swing to him in the ACT.
I think we have seen across the country community backed independents doing well. More Australians seeing what our politics can be. A constructive politics that is connected to the community.
My commitment to the last election was to be accessible and accountable to the people of the ACT and to work every day for them and to ultimately vote on their behalf. That is not my vote in the Senate. It belongs to people in the ACT. Something I take very seriously.
And my hope is that we will continue to see that grow, people see the benefit of people going to parliament and engage with good faith on ideas issues regardless of who puts those issues into the parliament.
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Updated at 21.45 EDT
