Federal Election 2025: Labor wins second term
Anthony Albanese has led Labor to a second election victory – the first Prime Minister to do so since 2004 – securing a majority of at least 84 seats after a Coalition collapse.
Federal Election
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Anthony Albanese has won a historic second term of government, securing an unexpected majority with at least 84 seats.
Mr Albanese is the first prime minister to secure consecutive electoral wins since 2004.
Sky News election analyst Tom Connell, who called a Labor win earlier in the night, said at the end of counting the government had won at least 84 seats, more than enough in the 150-seat parliament.
Labor won a number of key seats, including several in Queensland - where it had only five – including Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson,
“The gains they’re going to make are going to in fact be, more than any seats lost. They’re going to offset the losses,” he said.
Mr Albanese claimed victory at 10pm after Peter Dutton conceded.
A number of seats are yet to be finalised.
“In this time of global uncertainty, Australians have chosen optimism and determination,” he said.
“Australians have chosen to face global challenges the Australian way global challenges the Australian way – looking after each other while building for the future.
“And to serve these values, meet these challenges, seize these opportunities and build that better and stronger future, Australians have chosen a majority Labor government.”
Connell early in the night said Labor would win, but it was unclear if it would be a majority, election
But after further counting, it became clear Labor would win enough seats for a majority,
“They’re going to once again be returned a majority government after we get the final results later on. But they’re clearly going to win at least 76 seats,” Connell said just after 9pm.
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce told the panel the Labor victory was not unexpected.
“We all knew the Labor Party was going to win … but not by this much,” Mr Joyce told the Sky News panel.
However, he said the bruising result did not the Liberal Party could not recover, citing the demolition of the Queensland Labor Party before Annastacia Palaszczuk returned the ALP to government for 10 years.
“Never, ever say the dog is out of the fight.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton lost his own seat of Dickson to Labor’s Ali France, while Labor has wrested the inner-Brisbane seat of Griffith from high-profile Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather.
Cost-of-living campaign
The victory comes after an election campaign fought fiercely on cost-of-living pressures.
Labor spruiked its economic credentials throughout the campaign, with Mr Albanese and his cabinet pointing to wages growth and downward pressure on inflation.
They pushed a last minute downturn in underlying inflation this week as “proof” the Albanese government’s economic plan was working.
With mortgage holders hopeful of another rates cut on the horizon, the latest inflation figures poured cold water on Peter Dutton’s claims the economy was worse-off under the man he hoped to oust.
The Opposition Leader was also forced to abandon and walk back several policies, including his plan to scrap work from home arrangements for hundreds of thousands of public servants.
Mr Dutton’s flagship savings plan to slash 41,000 public servants in Canberra also came under fire, with experts saying it was impossible without carving into national security and other essential services the Coalition had promised not to touch.
Over the 35-day campaign, Mr Albanese promised to pump billions into Medicare to boost bulk-billing rates and get more Australians onto the property ladder while building more homes.
Voter turnout was robust, with long queues reported at polling stations – particularly in Melbourne – despite a high rate of early voting.
More to come
Originally published as Federal Election 2025: Labor wins second term
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