Albanese leads Labor to historic victory as Dutton loses seat

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Anthony Albanese has delivered a personal pledge to Australians to repay their trust after gaining an extraordinary victory at the federal election, as Labor stunned its opponents by increasing its majority in parliament and driving Peter Dutton to defeat in his home seat.

The powerful swing put the government on track to gain at least 14 seats, with some supporters describing the outcome as a landslide, as their opponents reeled from the scale of their losses.

The opposition leader conceded defeat at the election and in his seat of Dickson in northern Brisbane, while Liberals prepared for a wave of recriminations over their campaign and a search for a new leader.

Albanese appeared before chanting supporters in his electorate of Grayndler in Sydney and delivered a vow to voters who had placed their trust in Labor, some of them for the first time.

“I make this solemn pledge: we will not forget that, we will never take that for granted,” he said.

“Repaying your trust will drive our government each and every day of the next three years.”

Albanese becomes the first prime minister since John Howard in 2004 to win re-election, ending a cycle of one-term leaders over almost two decades, and he becomes the first Labor prime minister since Bob Hawke in 1984 to win a second term.

Labor has reclaimed two seats from the Greens, reversing the gains for the minor party in Brisbane at the last election, in a dramatic increase in the government’s hold on the middle ground in Australian politics.

Labor supporters acclaimed the result for giving the government a powerful mandate, given the rare outcome of an increased majority for a government at the end of its first term.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese walks through the crowd after his speech at the election night function.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Today, the Australian people have voted for Australian values – for fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all, for the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need,” Albanese said.

“In this time of global uncertainty, Australians have chosen optimism and determination.

“Australians have chosen to face global challenges the Australian way – looking after each other while building for the future.”

In a pointed moment that drew cheers from Labor supporters, Albanese prefaced his remarks with an acknowledgement of Indigenous Australians – after Dutton called during the campaign for the Welcome to Country to be scaled back at public events.

Reprising his key message from the campaign, he held up a Medicare card and vowed to improve health services. He promised fair wages, fair work conditions and industrial reforms including the “right to disconnect” so that workers could turn down calls from bosses outside working hours.

In an emotional moment that saw him come close to tears, Albanese was joined on stage by his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, and his son, Nathan, and thanked Australians for their support.

“Serving as your prime minister is the greatest honour of my life,” he said at the beginning of his remarks.

“And it is with a deep sense of humility, and a profound sense of responsibility, that the first thing that I do tonight is to say thank you to the people of Australia for the chance to continue to serve the best nation on Earth.”

Dutton was joined by his wife, Kirilly, and his sons when he conceded defeat in Brisbane.

“I’ve always wanted in public life the best for our country and the best for every Australian,” he said.

“We didn’t do well enough during this campaign – that much is obvious – and I accept responsibility for that.”

The voting showed the Labor candidate for Dutton’s seat, Ali France, had posted a significant gain in her primary vote on her third campaign for the seat, leading Dutton to concede.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Coalition’s nuclear policy had worked against Dutton in his home seat after he said he was willing to have a nuclear power station in his local area.

Labor also made gains in electorates including Leichhardt, a seat that includes Cairns and Cape York, where candidate Matt Smith was expected to win the seat.

In Bonner, one of the most marginal Brisbane electorates, Liberal member Ross Vasta suffered a double-digit swing against him in the early counting, losing to Labor candidate Kara Cook. Labor has not won the seat since 2007, when Queenslander Kevin Rudd led the party to victory.

Liberal National Party senator James McGrath, an experienced party official and campaigner before he entered parliament, predicted a result so tight that Australians might not know on Saturday night who could form government.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton votes in his Brisbane seat of Dickson with wife Kirilly, sons Tom (left) and Harry and daughter Rebecca.Credit: James Brickwood

“I don’t think we’re going to know who the next prime minister of the country is tonight,” McGrath told the ABC. “I think when everybody goes to bed, too many seats will be too close to call. There is a high soft vote out there still, and there are just a number of unique, different contests across the country.”

The outcome showed an emphatic victory for Labor instead. By the end of counting on Saturday night, Liberal shadow minister David Coleman appeared to have lost his seat of Banks in southern Sydney. Another frontbencher, Luke Howarth, was on track to lose his seat of Petrie in Brisbane. A third, Melissa McIntosh, was in a close contest to retain her seat of Lindsay in western Sydney, with some calculations putting Labor candidate Hollie McLean ahead in the race.

The Labor gains included a significant victory against the Greens in the Brisbane seat of Griffith, where Greens spokesman Max Chandler-Mather lost. Greens MP Stephen Bates lost the neighbouring seat of Brisbane. In the nearby seat of Ryan, the Liberals were close to defeating Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown but the result was too close to call.

Liberals admitted the counting was not promising for their candidate in the Sydney seat of Bradfield, Gisele Kapterian. Teal independent Nicolette Boele had campaigned in the seat for several years with funding from Climate 200. The early counting showed a swing to Boele.

Liberal immigration spokesman Dan Tehan defended his seat of Wannon against a teal challenger backed by Climate 200, and the Liberal member for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, was ahead of the teal challenger in her seat on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne.

Labor began the campaign with 78 seats and the Coalition 54, although each had a vacant seat after Bill Shorten and Keith Pitt resigned this year. This gave the two sides a formal tally of 77 and 53, respectively.

The Greens went into the election with four seats in the lower house.​ Independents and minor party crossbenchers had 15 seats, in a tally that included former Coalition MPs Russell Broadbent, Ian Goodenough and Andrew Gee, who contested the election after moving to the crossbench.

While published opinion polls showed the government had been losing ground with voters for more than a year, especially after the defeat for the Indigenous Voice referendum Albanese championed in October 2023, many voters swung back to Labor from the start of this year.

The major polls in the final week of the campaign showed that voters were leaning towards Labor, giving the government an average lead of 52.4 per cent in two-party terms.

The results suggested the Coalition had lost ground since the start of the formal campaign at the end of March and had slipped to an average of 47.6 per cent in two-party terms in the polls conducted over the past week.

Albanese named key targets in his appearances on Saturday, including the electorates of Menzies and Deakin in Victoria, the first held by Liberal backbencher Keith Wolahan and the second held by Liberal shadow assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar. Both appear to have lost their seats to Labor in results based on more than three quarters of the votes.

Albanese also named Fowler in south-western Sydney as a key target, in a sign of his ambition to defeat independent Dai Le after she seized the seat from Labor at the last election, but she is expected to retain the seat.

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