Coalition needs ‘fundamental reorganisation’ of structure
As votes continue to be counted, figures show the Coalition could slump to its lowest percentage of seats in parliament since the formation of the Liberal Party in the 1940s.
With 75 per cent of the vote counted, Labor has claimed 86 seats in the House of Representatives compared to the Coalition’s 39, with 15 seats still in doubt.
While Anthony Albanese has claimed an expanded mandate as prime minister with a larger majority in his second term, questions are being raised as to where the coalition will go.
But it could be some time before a new leader is appointed by the Liberals.
Deputy Leader of the Coalition Sussan Ley said the party room would meet to elect an opposition leader and deputy.
After consulting with the party’s senior leadership, Ley said several seats where preferential counting was continuing would have to be decided before the meeting could take place.
She said her party was reflecting on the results with humility.
Dutton lost his Dickson seat to Ali France in Labor’s biggest scalp of the election. Image: AAP
YouGov director of public data Paul Smith said the election was a referendum on the leadership of Peter Dutton, which was thoroughly rejected by voters.
“The Liberal Party result was devastating and requires a fundamental reorganisation of who they are… they are not representative of Australians,” he said.
“This is a situation where if they were a company, you would call in the administrators and look for a new business owner. It is catastrophic what happened.”
After the opposition leader lost his seat of Dickson in Labor’s biggest scalp of the election, a vacuum has emerged for the leadership of the Coalition.
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Frontrunners include shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley, along with opposition frontbenchers Dan Tehan and Andrew Hastie.
Smith said the loss by the coalition was a “self-inflicted defeat”.
“Their strategy was to win working-class votes in Sydney and Melbourne but the problem was their strategy was at odds with their policies,” he said.
“They now hold no seats in Perth or Adelaide and hardly any in Sydney or Melbourne and lost most seats in Brisbane.”
Deputy leader Sussan Ley is one of several frontrunners tipped to take over from Dutton. Image: AAP
Albanese has aimed for a tone of humility in his landslide win, thanking supporters in his inner-western Sydney seat of Grayndler on Sunday, before pledging to get back to the job at hand.
We will be a disciplined, orderly government in our second term, just like we have been in our first,” he said.
“We’ve been given a great honour of serving the Australian people, and we don’t take it for granted, and we’ll work hard each and every day.”
Alban-easy’s victory lap
Scooping gelato and sipping coffee with locals: the prime minister has continued typical campaign tasks without the weight of an election on his shoulders.
Many supporters never believed Anthony Albanese’s victory would come so easily.
But as the prime minister toured his home turf in the afterglow of the landslide win on Sunday morning, inner-west Sydney locals were keen to share in his joy.
Joshua Gibbs, who owns music store Crosstalk Records in Albanese’s electorate, gifted him a vinyl of Easy by Australian rock band The Easybeats as he made the morning rounds.
“Nobody thought it was going to be easy, but looks like it was Alban-easy,” he said.
He said the prime minister has visited his store before and often receives a rockstar reception in the area, with Gibbs feeling somewhat giddy himself after Albanese thanked him.
After Labor’s emphatic election victory, the prime minister’s first stop on Sunday was for coffee at a local institution in his seat of Grayndler.
Albanese soaked in the rays at Bar Italia’s leafy courtyard with his fiancee Jodie Haydon, cabinet minister Katy Gallagher, Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale and a few members of the party faithful.
“I used to visit this coffee shop with my mum,” he told reporters.
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“I grew up just down the road here, and I did certainly think of her last night as well – she would be very proud.”
He offered a “grazie mille” to wait staff and thanked supporters before giving back by scooping gelato for locals and members of his media pack.
Joshua Gibbs marked the PM’s Alban-easy’ win with an Easybeats vinyl record. Image: AAP
Albanese also took a moment to offer his sympathies to Peter Dutton, who lost both his seat and the election in a brutal double whammy for the coalition.
“I feel for Peter Dutton,” Albanese said.
“It’s a tough business politics, there’s no doubt about that, and it would have been a tough night for Peter.”
His successor in the north Brisbane electorate of Dickson, Ali France, became the first person ever to unseat a federal opposition leader.
“We all woke up to a big red wave, and I couldn’t be happier about that,” France told reporters.
Labor is on track to more than double its lower house caucus in Queensland, from five to potentially 13 MPs.
France will be one of the most celebrated members of the new Queensland caucus, and not just because of her history-making feat.
The former journalist has campaigned for seven years against Dutton, overcoming the amputation of one her legs in a car accident 13 years ago and the loss of her 19-year-old son to leukaemia in 2024.
“My Henry, he relapsed after he’d had a transplant, and we knew we’d have a big fight to keep him here with us,” France recounted tearfully.
“And I said to him, ‘well, I’m not going to be running again’, because obviously, I’m going to be by his side.
“He just said to me at the time, ‘don’t make me the excuse for not doing important things’.
“At times it’s felt just so incredibly hard but I’ve just always thought of his courage and determination and happiness in the face of just insurmountable pain.”
Pledge of unity
Anthony Albanese has pledged unity in his second term as more Labor MPs are elected to parliament in a decisive victory for his government.
“The Australian people voted for unity rather than division,” he said.
“We will be a disciplined, orderly government in our second term, just like we have been in our first.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Albanese will go down in history as a Labor hero following the result.
“This was beyond even our most optimistic expectations,” he said on Sunday.
