Zoe Daniel walks back claim of victory in Goldstein
Independent candidate Zoe Daniel is sounding a note of caution on Sunday after claiming victory in the seat of Goldstein on Saturday night.
In a post to social media, Daniel said it would be some days before the final count will be known.
The result in Goldstein is obviously close and it will be some days before the result is confirmed.
I again thank the voters of Goldstein for their support as well as the many volunteers who worked tirelessly on my campaign.
This electoral race is personal for her opponent, Tim Wilson, who was quoted by The Age on Saturday night as saying he believed he would get over the line on postal votes which were being returned in his favour at a rate of two to one.
He said:
Daniel is welcome to claim whatever she wants – it is the voters that will decide the result.
It’ll be tight. The whole nation went in one direction. We went in the other direction. I’m pretty proud of that. Succour if I fail, but I genuinely think I’ll get there.
Key events
Liberals Against Nuclear calls on party to axe ‘disastrous’ policy
The group of Liberal supporters who led a campaign against Peter Dutton’s signature energy policy have called on the party to drop the plan in the wake of the massive defeat.
Liberals Against Nuclear spokesperson Andrew Gregson said:
This result sees the Liberals facing a generational wipeout. Only significant and immediate change can chart a pathway back. Dropping the disastrous nuclear policy right now would demonstrate they are prepared to listen, learn and act.
Saturday’s election results are simply the latest and most compelling evidence that the party faithful never signed up for nuclear and would not follow Mr Dutton down this path.
If we continue down this path, we’re not just risking another electoral defeat – we’re risking the very identity of the Liberal Party as founded by Robert Menzies.
Amanda Meade
ABC tops election night TV ratings
The ABC was the most popular destination for election viewing last night, with its top election program (between 8.30pm and 10pm) attracting a national average audience of 2.4 million viewers.
According to official ratings data from OzTAM, the ABC’s broadcast and ABC iview audience dominated prime-time viewing with a free-to-air total TV prime-time share of 48.4%.
Seven News had 580,000 viewers and was the highest rating commercial TV station.
Seven says it was the first network to call the result, declaring prime minister Anthony Albanese the winner at 8.08pm.
Nine News was in third spot with 527,000 viewers.
The ABC News website and app had more than 5.7 million users across the day and almost 500,000 additional users via Apple News.
Labor MP Julian Hill used his Sunday morning to rub a little salt in the Coalition’s wounds.
In a post to social media, Hill highlighted how the Liberal party had secured only 13 of the 37 seats won by the Coalition in the House of Representatives.
The Nats and LNP are doing relatively well.
Barnaby Joyce for Leader of the Opposition?
Joe Hinchliffe
‘Women empowering women’ behind Labor’s success in Queensland, Anika Wells says
Labor’s Anika Wells says gender played a “critical” role in the party securing its historic win at Saturday’s election.
Speaking at a park in the seat of Dickson, which Ali France won from Peter Dutton, alongside seven other newly elected Labor women from the sunshine state – including one senator and six likely to win lower house seats – the minister for sports and member for Lilley says the Albanese government inspired women to join and vote for them.
It is such a powerful picture that you see here. Not just that we chose to preselect women, but these women represent their communities.
Wells says young women like Emma Comer, the candidate for Petrie, saw themselves represented in what was the first ever majority women government and the first ever 50-50 male-female cabinet.
She saw herself in that, she saw the possibilities for someone like herself in that and she put herself forward in a situation that she may have never done before.
Women, empowering women. Women legislating for women. Women working for women. This is the result.
Along with France, Comer and Wells is Brisbane’s Madonna Jarrett, Bonner’s Kara Cook, Moreton’s Julie-Ann Campbell, Griffith’s Renee Coffey and senator Corinne Mulholland.
Zoe Daniel walks back claim of victory in Goldstein
Independent candidate Zoe Daniel is sounding a note of caution on Sunday after claiming victory in the seat of Goldstein on Saturday night.
In a post to social media, Daniel said it would be some days before the final count will be known.
The result in Goldstein is obviously close and it will be some days before the result is confirmed.
I again thank the voters of Goldstein for their support as well as the many volunteers who worked tirelessly on my campaign.
This electoral race is personal for her opponent, Tim Wilson, who was quoted by The Age on Saturday night as saying he believed he would get over the line on postal votes which were being returned in his favour at a rate of two to one.
He said:
Daniel is welcome to claim whatever she wants – it is the voters that will decide the result.
It’ll be tight. The whole nation went in one direction. We went in the other direction. I’m pretty proud of that. Succour if I fail, but I genuinely think I’ll get there.
Independents ‘can’t be ignored’ in coming parliament, Gee says
Gee says the strong swing the independents received showed “people have had a gutful of the spin”.
In the end there was just so much major party advertising from the Nationals. It was just an avalanche. And I think in a cost of living crisis, people were seeing those massive amounts of money being spent on TV, on signage, everything. And I think a lot of people in the end thought this is just obscene.
And they were just seeing the same old soundbites coming in. And it wasn’t real and genuine community connection at the end of the day. And so I think that made the difference. I think we ran a very grassroots campaign. We ran it on the smell of an oily rag.
And I think that people could see in communities around our region that we were genuinely trying to offer alternative policies and actually help people and make life better for the people that we represent.
Gee said he did not believe the Labor majority would dilute the power of the crossbench and that, in fact, he expected a “very dynamic crossbench”.
I think the fact that the independents have been returned with such decisive results, I think adds weight to the voices that we bring to the parliament, because we’ve shown that we can stand up to the mightiest of machines and that we can defeat them, and that we will not be ignored and we can’t be ignored.
Former Nationals MP predicts party will have leadership challenge soon
Andrew Gee says the failure by the Coalition to provide any real details of its nuclear plan, particularly in communities like Lithgow where it wanted to build them, contributed to their defeat as it left people guessing whether it was “fact or fiction”.
For example, the Coalition didn’t tell the people of Lithgow that they were actually planning to store the nuclear waste in Lithgow. They totally ignored that.
And then when I actually got that information out of it, they started saying, ‘oh, well, you can store it in Coke cans,’ and all this sort of stuff like little, little canisters, like Coke cans. It was all very strange. There was never any detail across it, and people were just in the end, thinking, is this a real policy or is it not a real policy?
Like the Libs, the National party will be expected to have a leadership challenge.
Make no mistake. The spin will be all, ‘yes, the National party had a good campaign and everything’s hunky dory, And aren’t the Liberals hopeless?’
But the reality is the challenge will be on if the numbers are there. Mark my words. I’ve seen this movie many times before.
Nationals leader deserves equal share of blame for election loss, Gee says
The entire Coalition campaign has been “truly disastrous”, Gee says.
I mean, it’s been an epic wipeout. It gives me no joy to say it. You have to remember that the Liberal party and the National party are one party in Queensland, so they were working very closely together. And I think that they’ve got major problems.
And I’ve been listening to some of the commentary that’s been coming out today, including on your show, that this was more a city swing and it didn’t really have anything to do with the nationals. It had a lot to do with the nationals.
Gee said Nationals leader David Littleproud was partly responsible for the wipeout as he was “openly crowing that he was the one that told Peter Dutton to go nuclear”. Another figure who deserves some blame, Gee said, was Barnaby Joyce, who had been “sidelined and put into witness protection”.
I mean, the whole campaign was very strange in many ways out here on the ground. It was a nasty campaign. There were all sorts of – I won’t even go into it. There was a lot of skulduggery going on out here.
Andrew Gee reflects on ‘David and Goliath’ battle against former party for Calare
Independent Andrew Gee says he is “absolutely delighted” with the result of his “David and Goliath” campaign.
Gee quit the National party in December 2022 over the Coalition’s decision to oppose the Indigenous voice to parliament in the referendum to run as an independent.
We’re absolutely delighted with the result. And I just feel very humbled and very grateful that the communities of our region have decided to return me as their local member. It’s the honour of my life. And now the work continues of fighting and delivering for the Central West of New South Wales.
Speaking on the ABC, Gee said that his former party’s response to the voice was one reason he left but “wasn’t the only reason”, saying the Nationals were “simply not the party that it used to be” and that “it’s not truly representing country people any more”.
It was a very difficult campaign. There was a lot of spite in the campaign, and in many ways it was a very nasty campaign. So we were massively outspent. The National party would have spent between $1.5m and $2m campaigning for this seat.
I mean, we would have spent a fraction of that in terms of the personnel on the booths. We basically were able to get one or two people on each booth. Community members. We had everyone from all walks of life there. Vietnam veterans, social workers, everyone who we’ve been working with came out to help us.
Fremantle independent says seat remains too close to call
The independent candidate running for the WA seat of Fremantle is not giving up the fight, saying the count is too close to call to concede just yet.
Kate Hulett said in a statement that her campaign sought to offer a “positive alternative to the same old politics”.
Our campaign has inspired, engaged and connected with the community in a way the major parties can’t. We campaigned hard on the North West Shelf, on AUKUS and on real solutions to the housing crisis, and people went for it in droves.
Of course, this is no mean feat after nearly a century of Labor incumbency, but the community sentiment has moved in a way that is palpable and permanent. We offered change, and people have voted for it – they want to take back power from the politicians to get meaningful action and better outcomes.
From the start of this campaign, I said that Dutton was finished and that the real danger was an Albanese government without any pressure, and here we are. Just like at the WA election, the count is too close to call and may be several days before we have an outcome. But we have already won in so many ways – Fremantle has shown what is possible when we do politics differently.
Hulett remains in a tight battle with Labor’s Josh Wilson.
Minerals Council silent on Albanese election win
Of all the groups reacting to the election result, the Minerals Council of Australia has been notably silent on the re-election of the Albanese government – likely because the industry association lent a senior advisor to the Coalition campaign.
The catastrophic loss raises questions about future relations between the industry group and the Albanese government. Notably, the MCA was previously known as the “Australian Mining Industry Council” but changed its name in a rebrand partly because its leadership was so hostile to Indigenous rights in the wake of the Mabo decision that it irreparably soured relations with the Keating government.
There is, however, one hard rock mining industry group that has been vocal on Sunday – the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA (CME) who congratulated the PM and said it looked forward to the government following through on its $1.2bn commitment to establish a Critical Minerals Reserve.
It also made clear environmental reform in favour of industry was still very much on its agenda, noting the government’s previous willingness to “go back to the drawing board” on its landmark nature positive reforms. This occurred after Albanese personally intervened to shelve the reforms at the eleventh hour to prevent a deal with the Greens.
CME chief executive officer Rebecca Tomkinson said “streamlining and accelerating Federal environmental assessments goes to the heart of reversing the recent decay in Australia’s investment fundamentals”.
Environmental law reform is long overdue but must deliver on the stated goal of improving outcomes for both the environment and for business. The only way to achieve that is through early, open and frequent consultation with all stakeholders.
Tomkinson said the government’s Future Made In Australia policy was “important and welcome” it “cannot compensate for flawed fundamentals”.
WA has an abundance of the minerals and energy the world needs to navigate both the energy transition and rising geopolitical instability,” she said.
But we’re not the only place that produces commodities like iron ore, LNG and rare earths.
Investors have options. As a nation, we need to start acting like we’re serious about competing for their capital.
A few photos of the leaders as Saturday night drew to a close.
Malaysian PM congratulates Albanese
The Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has congratulated 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 south-east 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’”.
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:
