Australian voters have delivered Labor a landslide election win, giving the government a second term that has defied early polls.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government will certainly add seats to its majority in the House of Representatives.
Albanese flashed his often displayed Medicare card and vowed he would be back at work tomorrow.
“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.
“We did not do well enough during this campaign, that much is obvious tonight, and I accept full responsibility for that,” 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, 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.”