Federal Election 2019: Labor candidate Nadia Clancy concedes Boothby to sitting Liberal MP Nicolle Flint
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is poised to secure majority government after Labor candidate Nadia Clancy conceded the seat of Boothby to sitting Liberal MP Nicolle Flint and Kerryn Phelps conceded in Wentworth.
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SCROLL DOWN: Flint poised to bring home bacon in key seat
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is poised to secure majority government after Labor candidate Nadia Clancy conceded the seat of Boothby to sitting Liberal MP Nicolle Flint.
Kerryn Phelps also has conceded in Wentworth.
Ms Clancy today rang Ms Flint to concede the state’s most marginal seat, which positions Prime Minister Scott Morrison to secure majority government after the stunning win by the Coalition on Saturday night.
“Nadia and her team ran an amazing campaign but will fall just short despite getting strong swing,” SA Labor said on Twitter.
On FIVEaa, Ms Flint said she would wait for the official call from the Australian Electoral Commission.
Dr Phelps, the high-profile independent and former AMA president, conceded later this morning, handing victory to well-credentialled Liberal candidate Dave Sharma, in Malcolm Turnbull’s former seat.
Securing Boothby and Wentworth will help give Mr Morrison the ability to pass legislation through the House of Representatives without the help of independents, but a result could take several days.
It could also reduce the influence of Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie, who has already listed a raft of measures, including a Royal Commission into the Murray Darling River system, she wants Mr Morrison to back in return for her support.
The Coalition has announced it will use bipartisan support to get promised tax cuts – a centrepiece of Josh Frydenberg’s first budget – passed before the end of the financial year.
Labor’s Anthony Albanese, meanwhile, has thrown his hat in the ring to replace Bill Shorten as leader, with Tanya Plibersek expected to nominate on Monday.
After one of the biggest upsets in Australian political history, Mr Morrison on Sunday went to church before watching his beloved Cronulla Sharks played in the NRL.
“I give thanks to live in the greatest country in all the world,” Mr Morrison said.
“Thanks again to all Australians all across the country.”
During the campaign, Mr Morrison faced criticism for failing to outline a bold agenda for his prime ministership, but he said that his first priorities were clear: give funding to HeadSpace to address mental illness and youth suicide, legislate the budget and tax cuts and sort out problems with the NDIS.
He said the Coalition’s third term under his leadership would have “a new freshness, a new level of determination and a renewal of our mandate and commitment to our economic and national security agenda and our services agenda.”
After just a few hours’ sleep, Mr Morrison started his first day as newly elected Prime Minister with a phone call from US President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and he has also been in contact with NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and was expected to speak to British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday night.
Mr Morrison said Mr Trump had predicted his election win and described their call as “friendly”.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who fulfilled a promise to shout local voters a beer at a bowling club in his Melbourne electorate of Kooyong, said the Government would quickly turn its attention to delivering tax cuts of up to $1080 into the pockets of Australians earning up to $126,000.
“We want to bring parliament together. The Labor Party have already said they will support that legislation, so it will have bipartisan support, so let’s get this legislation passed so that the Australian people get their tax cuts,” Mr Frydenberg said.
Senior SA Labor figures including Penny Wong and Mark Butler, who were both earmarked for Cabinet positions in a Bill Shorten-led government, were laying low as the party searched for answers over what went wrong.
Labor’s National President Wayne Swan said Labor needed to examine its policy framework and campaign strategies.
“Attributing blame or fault to any particular individual or policy is not the way ahead,” Mr Swan said. “Every political party which suffers a defeat learns one lesson and that is to listen even more carefully.”
Frontbencher and former leadership challenger Anthony Albanese became the first to formally announce a tilt at the top job, following what he described as a “devastating result”.
Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek look set to be joined by election campaign spokesman Jim Chalmers and Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen.
SA Labor told The Advertiser a range of factors had contributed to the parties poor showing across the country.
One senior figure said voters in or approaching retirement were concerned Labor would tax their superannuation. The Coalition’s advertising material also credited with making a huge difference, with one insider suggesting “Liberal creatives” had outdone Labor’s. Another questioned Mr Shorten’s ability to communicate with the public.
A Liberal powerbroker told The Advertiser Labor’s tax reform agenda, that included changes to negative gearing, capital gains and franking credits, helped to bring “home” voters the party had lost during the Turnbull years.
Slick advertising material had also made it easier to convince donors to contribute additional financial support because they could see their money was being well spent, the Liberal figure said.
As counting continued in the federal election, a handful of seats remained close, and incumbents trailed in 10 lower house electorates.
With just over 75 per cent of the vote counted, the Coalition appeared to hold 74 seats – two short of a majority.
Flint to bring home bacon in key seat
With Labor’s Ms Clancy conceding this morning, the southern suburbs seat of Boothby is poised to become the magic 76th seat Mr Morrison needs to form majority government.
Ms Flint almost doubled her lead on Ms Clancy as postal and mobile pre-poll votes continued to be counted, pulling away to be more than 2000 votes in front.
Nationally, the Liberals had secured 75 seats as of Sunday night, with Boothby one of four electorates in which it is marginally ahead, but still considered to be in doubt.
Last night, Ms Flint told The Advertiser it was too early to claim victory but praised a grassroots campaign that appeared likely to be enough to withstand a targeted push against her by the union movement and left-wing activist group, GetUp!.
“I’m really proud of the job that we did … and now we just need to wait for the final results,” she said.
“Boothby has always been a marginal seat, that’s how I’ve always treated it, but for the first time in SA, we saw a concerted effort from GetUp!, Labor and the unions to try and unseat me, so I just focused on working as hard as I could every single day for my local community.”
Speaking in Glenelg last night, an upbeat Ms Clancy said she was excited that the vote was so tight, courtesy of a 1.53 per cent swing in her favour.
“I’m pretty disappointed that we’re not forming government but I’m excited that we’ve put up a good fight in Boothby and got a swing towards us,” Ms Clancy said.
The first-time candidate, who has worked as a staffer for former prime minister Kevin Rudd and Labor frontbencher Mark Butler, said Labor should be “really proud” of what they’d achieved in Boothby.
“This is not a scenario that I ever considered … where we (Labor) are not going to form government but we’re still in it in Boothby,” Ms Clancy said.
“We’ve given it absolutely everything we could. We’ve had tens of thousands of conversations with people in our community but that’s the best we could do.”
This morning, she said she was “really sad” and “really disappointed” that Labor had not been able to secure government.
Meanwhile Liberal candidate James Stevens extended his party’s margin in its eastern suburbs heartland of Sturt, leading Labor’s Cressida O’Hanlon 56.67 per cent to 43.33 per cent, with three quarters of votes counted.
Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie comfortably outpolled Liberal Georgina Downer, leading the two-party preferred vote 55.43 per cent to 44.57 per cent.
The Labor-held seats of Hindmarsh, Makin, Adelaide, Kingston and Spence all went to script with sitting members easily retaining their seats, while Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey attracted just over 50 per cent of the primary vote to keep hold of Grey, the state’s largest electorate. The biggest margin is in the regional electorate of Barker, with Liberal MP Tony Pasin on track to extend it to 17.7 per cent.
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