Australia news as it happened: Ley to unveil Coalition front bench; Bradfield in the balance as amid informal vote surge

That wraps up our national blog for Monday the 26th of May. Thanks for following along. We will have more for you in the next live news coverage.

Here’s a summary of some of the stories we’ve been following today:

• The Albanese government is set to gain its 94th seat in the House of Representatives with Labor’s Basem Abdo on track to win the Victoria electorate of Calwell. At 94 seats, Labor would equal the record number of seats that John Howard’s Coalition won at the 1996 election (although Howard’s win was from a total of 148 seats, rather than 150).
• An orange dust storm has spread across South Australia to country towns in Victoria and NSW, causing visibility and air quality to plunge. The Bureau of Meteorology have just issued a statement noting that a dust storm at this time of year is unusual for South Australia, which is in the grip of drought. You can follow updates to this story here.
• The Australian Electoral Commission will undertake a partial recount in Goldstein after a request made by teal independent Zoe Daniel. The final count for Goldstein finished on Saturday with Liberal Tim Wilson recording a margin of 260 votes ahead of Daniel. For details about what the partial recount will involve, read Cara Water’s story here.

We have been keeping you abreast of the dust storm affecting parts of Australia today, after extraordinary images emerged from South Australia, where road conditions turned hazardous due to a moving cloud of orange dirt.

By mid-afternoon, the dust cloud had crossed the border into neighbouring towns in Victoria and NSW, causing air quality to plunge.

The dust storm has reached the NSW town of Wentworth.Credit: Malcolm Traeger

In Werrimull, a tiny Victorian town near the border, the air quality was rated extremely poor at 3pm to 4pm as levels of particulate matter in the air soared.

The level of fine particles that can be inhaled deeply into the lungs, and pose a significant health risk, was recorded to be more than 10 times higher than safe levels. The official health advice is for residents to stay indoors as much as possible with windows and doors closed.

It was a similar situation for Coombah, in NSW’s far west.

Poor air quality was recorded as far east as Kyalite, in NSW’s Riverina district as the dust storm spread east.

You can read more about the wild weather here.

The Coalition’s chief campaign spokesman James Paterson says the Liberal Party needs to gain back Australians’ trust, or it will be “frankly, out of business as a political party”.

Speaking to ABC Radio Melbourne this afternoon, Paterson again conceded changes need to be made by the party after its devastating election loss.

Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Clearly we’ve got a lot of work to do on things like candidate selection, on putting forward more women in winnable seats, on representing multicultural Australia and connecting with them better, as well as the policy issues that came up,” the Victorian senator said.

“This is a very serious moment for the Liberal Party. It doesn’t have to be an existential moment, but it will be, depending on how we respond to it.”

Paterson described last week’s extraordinary Coalition split as “unedifying” and “unnecessary”.

“It’s very good we’ve got it back on track. It’s unfortunate it was public in the way it was. But we’ve got three years now to really get our act together, to train our sights on the government, hold them to account for their commitments.”

We reported earlier about the dust storm in South Australia.

As authorities predicted, it looks like the large area of raised dust has now crossed the border into Victoria, with images emerging from the western Victorian town of Mildura where the air is now tinged with orange.

This image was posted on Facebook by Lisa Cooper, a local historian and writer.

The dust storm arrived in Mildura in the mid-afternoon.Credit: Lisa Cooper

″It’s been a while since we’ve had a dust storm in Mildura. At least this one isn’t too bad compared to some others,” she writes.

Drivers have been forced to turn on their headlights, as visibility in the town and surrounding areas reduces.

Those in the area have been urged to stay indoors if possible, especially if they have pre-existing health conditions that could be exacerbated by the poor air quality.

Driving has become hazardous in some areas of South Australia and Victoria today. Credit: Janine Duncan

Here’s some advice shared by VicEmergency earlier today:

• Avoid outdoor activity. Spend as little time outside as possible.
• Avoid vigorous exercise, especially if you have asthma or a breathing-related condition.
• Stay indoors, with windows and doors closed.
• Stay in air-conditioned premises if possible and ensure regular maintenance of air-conditioner filters.

A recount in the federal seat of Bradfield, which ended in a near-tie between the Liberal and independent candidates, could take two weeks to complete, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) says.

When the initial count finished last week, the Liberal contender for the Sydney north shore electorate, Giselle Kapterian, was ahead of her teal independent rival Nicolette Boele by just eight votes.

Late on Friday, the AEC ordered a full recount in the electorate, which commenced this morning at the commission’s vote counting centre in Asquith, in Sydney’s northern suburbs.

A spokesman for the AEC said today that the recount was expected to take “approximately two weeks” although that would depend on the nature of vote scrutinising during the process, including how often the formality of ballots is challenged by scrutineers acting for both candidates.

On election night more than three weeks ago, it appeared Boele had won the seat, although she stopped short of claiming victory.

As counting progressed the margin narrowed and the lead switched between both contenders. It is AEC policy to conduct a full recount if the final margin is fewer than 100 votes.

The AEC has until July 9 to return the writs that formally declare the results of elections in all federal seats.

The Albanese government has gained its 94th seat in the House of Representatives with Labor’s Basem Abdo on track to win the Victoria electorate of Calwell.

After a drawn-out preference count, caused in part by numerous candidates winning significant numbers of votes, Abdo is now in a position where he cannot be beaten.

Calwell, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs including Broadmeadows and Craigieburn, has been a traditionally safe Labor seat until local anger erupted over the way Abdo was preselected to replace the retiring Maria Vamvakinou.

Abdo secured just 30.5 per cent of the primary vote, a 14-point drop on Vamvakinou. But with the Australian Electoral Commission now through its 11th preference count, Abdo is sitting on 48 per cent of the vote compared to independent Carly Moore who is now on 29.7 per cent of the vote.

The other remaining candidate is Liberal Usman Ghani whose preferences will get Abdo over the line.

Labor’s Basem Abdo has been declared on track to win the Melbourne seat of Calwell.

At 94 seats, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to equal the record number of seats that John Howard’s Coalition won at the 1996 election, although Howard’s win was from a total of 148 seats, rather than 150.

It is the largest number of House seats ever won by a Labor government.

Apocalyptic images are emerging from South Australia this afternoon, as a dust storm blankets parts of the drought-stricken state.

A video posted from the town of Orroroo by South Australian media personality Andrew “Cosi” Costello shows a thick orange haze reducing visibility to less than a few hundred metres.

“Bloody hell,” wrote Costello in this video posted to Facebook.

Victorians in Mildura and surrounding areas have been warned to expect to be affected anytime from now, as a large area of raised dust has been detected just over the South Australian border, heading towards the Mallee area.

In Victoria, the State Emergency Service has issued the following advice:

• Stay indoors when the storm arrives – close the windows and doors.
• If possible, stay in an air-conditioned room and set your air-conditioner to recirculate the indoor air.
• Cover your nose and mouth with a mask or damp cloth.

In South Australia, police have warned country drivers to exercise extreme caution as the roads are unsafe.

“Severe weather and winds have caused dust storms that are significantly reducing visibility on various country roads throughout the state. Some roads are closed to traffic and will not be reopened until the risk to the public reduces,” police said in a statement.

Authorities in both states have advised the public to call triple zero if emergency assistance is needed.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has just finished speaking in Canberra about the news that one of Australia’s largest private hospital owners Healthscope has gone into receivership.

He said the decision to place the ownership of Healthscope into receivership was not unexpected, but he had received reassurance from Healthscope that its 37 hospitals employing about 19,000 staff “will continue to operate as normal”.

Butler has ruled out a taxpayer bailout of the company and said the takeover of individual hospitals also wasn’t on the government’s agenda.

“I want to be clear that I expect to see an orderly sale process eventuate from this decision to a new owner with no impact on patients and no impact on hard-working staff. My department, over recent hours, has already met with the receivers and made that exact same point to them.”

Receivers have been appointed, led by McGrathNicol partner Keith Crawford, with the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac, two of the lenders owed $1.6 billion, providing additional funding to ensure the hospital operations continue as normal.

You can read more about this story here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reminded his cabinet to focus on the Australian public and not “shenanigans” inside Parliament House.

In his opening remarks to cabinet from Canberra, Albanese also flagged how the current NSW floods are an indication of climate change making Australia vulnerable to more extreme weather events.

After confirming he would be going to visit a flood zone tomorrow, Albanese gave his ministers a reminder on how to conduct themselves for the upcoming new parliamentary term.

“As a government we should not be focused on ourselves and internal shenanigans in this building, we should be focused on them [the Australian people] and what their concerns are and that’s the platform that we have to implement,” he said.

“The one we were elected on, we need to make sure we deliver on the commitments. Whether it be increased housing, whether it be the free TAFE, strengthening Medicare, cheaper childcare, making sure that we deliver on the commitments we took to the election.”

Good afternoon. My name is Aisha Dow, and I’ll be joining you this afternoon as we continue the national news blog.

Here’s what’s been making news today:

• In news just in, an Australian has allegedly been caught in Bali with enough drugs to qualify for the death penalty or decades in prison. Local media have reported that the person, whose identity remains unknown, was arrested in an apartment in the Canggu area of the popular holiday island on Thursday. Read more from our correspondents here.

The Canggu area in Bali.Credit: Amilia Rosa

• It’s weeks since the federal election, but the battle over the Melbourne seat of Goldstein continues. The Australian Electoral Commission announced this morning that it will undertake a partial recount of votes after a request made by teal independent Zoe Daniel. Liberal Tim Wilson claimed victory in the seat earlier this month after final counting put him 260 votes ahead of Daniel.
• A blanket ban on machete sales in Victoria has been fast-tracked after a violent gang brawl at a shopping centre sent shoppers running, screaming and hiding in stores.
• More than 32,000 remain isolated by the flood disaster in NSW as insurance claims pour in by their thousands. It’s estimated that 10,000 properties have been hit by the floods in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of NSW after a month’s worth of rain fell in a matter of days. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Australian Defence Force will be dispatched tomorrow to help with the clean-up.