Election 2022 live news: Anthony Albanese promises to bring Australians together

Anthony Albanese returns the ALP to power after the Coalition was decimated by Labor and Climate 200 teal independents.

Anthony Albanese has returned the ALP to power after the Coalition was decimated by Labor and Climate 200 teal independents in metropolitan seats across the country, with voters abandoning the major parties and flocking to minor parties.

Despite Labor’s primary vote plunging to 32 per cent, lower than Bill Shorten’s effort in 2019, Mr Albanese was expected to come close to claiming a 76-seat majority after sweeping seats in Perth and Melbourne.

The 59-year-old, who will be sworn-in as Australia’s 31st prime minister ahead of attending the Quad leaders’ summit in Tokyo and meeting with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday, said “we have made history tonight”.

After hushing the boisterous Labor Party faithful at the Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL club, Mr Albanese said “tomorrow, together, we begin the work of building a better future”.

“I want to bring Australians together. I want to seek our common purpose and promote unity and optimism – not fear and division. What I will bring to the leadership of our country, it is a show of strength to collaborate and work with people, not weakness. I want to find that common ground where together we can plant our dreams,” Mr Albanese said.

“To unite around our shared love of this country, our shared faith in Australia’s future, our shared values of fairness and opportunity and hard work and kindness to those in need.”

Flanked by his partner Jodie Haydon and son Nathan, Mr Albanese thanked the “true believers” and paid tribute to his late mother Maryanne who he said was “beaming down on us”.

In one of the major upsets of election night, Labor frontbencher and former NSW premier Kristina Keneally was expected to lose the safe seat of Fowler to independent Dai Le. Terri Butler, another close ally of Mr Albanese and shadow cabinet member, was also set to lose her south Brisbane seat of Griffith to Greens candidate Max Chandler-Mather.

After leading the Liberal Party to a devastating election loss with the government set to lose 15 seats to teal independents and Labor, with another five considered at-risk, Scott Morrison told supporters he took responsibility for the defeat.

Mr Morrison confirmed he would step down as leader of the Liberal Party after the rout claimed the high-profile scalps of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt and rising star Dave Sharma. Special Minister of State Ben Morton, a close ally of Mr Morrison, was also expected to lose his seat.

“To my colleagues tonight, who have had to deal with very difficult news, and have lost their seats tonight, I as leader take responsibility for the wins and the losses,” Mr Morrison said.

“That is the burden and that is the responsibility of leadership. As a result I will be handing over the leadership at the next party room meeting to ensure the party can be taken forward under new leadership which is the appropriate thing to do.”

Teal independents, backed by millionaire Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 movement, won six previously safe Liberal seats in Sydney and Melbourne.

The 47th parliament will feature the largest crossbench in the nation’s modern history, including 10 teal independents, three Greens, Bob Katter and Ms Le.

The Greens were one of the biggest winners of the night after increasing their primary vote to 12.3 per cent. Greens leader Adam Bandt, who became the first lower house MP for the party in 2010, was confident he would claim Ryan and Griffith in Brisbane.

Huge swings to the left-wing party, which was optimistic of running close in Brisbane, Richmond and Macnamara, was likely to deliver the Greens an additional three senators in the upper house. Coalition and Labor strategists were concerned that their historically low primary votes would gut their Senate teams and hand seats to the minor parties. Liberal minister Zed Seselja was under threat of losing his ACT seat to Climate 200 independent and former Wallabies captain David Pockock.

The Coalition election bloodbath saw the Liberals lose the previously safe seats of North Sydney, Wentworth, Kooyong, Curtin, Goldstein, Mackellar, Reid, Higgins, Robertson, Swan, Pearce, Hasluck, Brisbane, Ryan. The Coalition was also concerned about close races in Tangney, Bennelong, Menzies, Moore and Deakin.

As a result of the teal wave, the Liberal Party’s moderate faction was gutted. After Mr Frydenberg’s loss, Peter Dutton is expected to put his hand up for the Liberal leadership after holding on to his Queensland seat of Dickson.

Mr Morrison said he had the great privilege of leading a great party and a great nation and “the reason I have been able to do that is I've been supported by so many and I want to thank all of those colleagues tonight for all of their great work in service of their country”.

“You can feel proud of the service you've rendered,” he said.

“To all of those who have been elected again tonight, you carry forward that Liberal mantle. You carry forward that Coalition flag. And I can only see myself continuing to support you in those efforts because the country will need you in the years ahead. Thank you.”

In contrast with the electoral bloodbath facing the Liberals, the Nationals were expected to hold its regional seats, including Nicholls in regional Victoria, Flynn in central Queensland and Page in northern NSW, which were all considered to be under threat.

The Liberals were hopeful that former state minister Andrew Constance will edge Labor MP Fiona Phillips in the southern NSW electorate of Gilmore. Despite targeting Labor-held seats, including Lingiari, McEwen and Corangamite, the Coalition was comfortably beaten.

Liberal moderate faction leader Simon Birmingham said embattled Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves should have been disendorsed to help prevent a swathe of moderate MP from losing their seats.

A number of Moderate MPs under threat from left wing teal independents had called for Ms Deves to be disendorsed over fears her candidacy threatened their re-election, after a series of social media post in which she made controversial comments about transgender people surfaced during the election campaign.

Read below for a recap of how election night panned out in our live blog.