Federal election 2019: PM clinches majority with Chisholm
The PM appears to have clinched majority government with the AEC moving Chisholm into the Coalition’s win column.
- PM clinches majority
- Climate change ‘no GetUp winner’
- Bowen launches leadership bid
- Tax cuts by 2019-2020
Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live commentary on the aftermath of the federal election.
Top Stories: Scott Morrison appears to have clinched majority government with Chisholm
Chris Bowen has thrown his hat in the ring for the Labor leadership.
5.21pm: Di Natale stays on as Greens leader
Richard Di Natale is staying on as Greens leader after all his MPs were returned and his party saw swings towards it in Saturday’s federal election.
He said the “climate change election” didn’t deliver a change in government in part because Labor was inconsistent on its climate policies and fossil fuel mining.
“When you go to Queensland and say one thing to people in Queensland, and come down to Victoria and say another thing to people in Victoria, people know you’re not fair dinkum,” Senator Di Natale told reporters in Melbourne today. “You have to be absolutely up front and honest with people because people can smell a phoney a mile away.” The Greens will retain its numbers in parliament - nine senators and one lower house MP.
Senator Di Natale said he was looking forward to continuing as leader after the party lifted its vote.
“Before this campaign I can’t tell you how many people were telling me we were going to lose half of our Senate numbers,” he said.
“Of course it would have been nice to win an additional lower house seat, but we knew we were coming from a long way back.
“We’re very disappointed, bitterly disappointed, that we’ve not been able to see a change of government.”
Senator Di Natale urged whoever wins the Labor leadership race to replace Bill Shorten to reach out to the Greens to work together to defeat the coalition.
AAP
Richard Ferguson 2.50pm: July 1 tax cuts guarantee
Josh Frydenberg says his promised tax cuts are still on track, even if the parliament does not return before June 30.
“Let me be very clear: The tax relief promised in the budget will be delivered,” the Treasurer said in Canberra today.
“As you know, in last year’s budget we announced tax offset of $530. That will be available from 1 July, and that is already legislated.
“In this year’s budget, we extended the tax offset to $1,080 for those earning up to $126,000. Now, the legislation needs to be passed and it will be the first priority of business once the parliament resumes.
“As the Prime Minister has said, it is not likely that the parliament will resume before the end of June because we have to wait for the writs to be returned. But let me be very clear: The tax relief outlined in the budget will be delivered to millions of Australians.”
Richard Ferguson 2.45pm: Albo welcomes Bowen nomination
Labor leadership contender Anthony Albanese says he is glad ALP members will now get a say in the future direction of the devastated party after Chris Bowen’s decision to run.
“I am a friend of Chris Bowen. We have been friends for a very long time. He has my respect,” Mr Albanese said in Sydney today.
“He puts his bid towards not just caucus members but every single member of the Australian Labor Party. The membership will have an opportunity to have a say.
“One of the good things about our process is that immediately after an election, it will be an opportunity for literally tens of thousands of members to express to myself and to Chris and the wider party why it is, in their view, that we came up short on Saturday.”
Mr Albanese also directly echoed Mr Bowen’s comments from earlier today.
“I am not running against Chris Bowen or anyone else. I’m running against Scott Morrison.”
1.50pm: More powder sent to Hanson-Young
A second envelope containing a powder has caused alarm at the Adelaide office of Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
The delivery prompted evacuation of the Greens’ headquarters for the second time in 24 hours, after a first envelope containing powder and a threat was received on Monday.
The powder in both packages was tested and found not to be a dangerous chemical, a police spokesperson told AAP.
The South Australian senator, who was returned at Saturday’s election, has not detailed what was in the note but has confirmed it was directed at her. She labelled the person who sent it an “idiot”.
“It was white powder with a pretty serious threat attached,” she told ABC radio on Tuesday.
Sid Maher 1.30pm: PM clinches majority
AEC has moved Chisholm (VIC) from a close seat to a Liberal Party win #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/0AZoBOOJdA
— Political Alert (@political_alert) May 21, 2019
Scott Morrison appears to have clinched majority government with the Australian Electoral Commission moving the Victorian seat of Chisholm into the Coalition’s win column.
The Liberal Party candidate in Chisholm Gladys Liu is leading Labor’s Jennifer Yang by 964 votes, giving the government 76 seats in the 151 House of Representatives and a bare majority.
The apparent win is a remarkable result in a seat which was seen as an almost certain Labor gain before Saturday’s election, particularly after the previous member Julia Banks quit the Liberals to become an independent after Malcolm Turnbull’s dumping as prime minister.
Ms Banks unsuccessfully contested the Victorian seat of Flinders as an independent.
In Bass the Liberal candidate Bridget Archer is 392 votes ahead of sitting Labor member Ross Hart.
Mr Hart is reportedly pessimistic about his chances but the Liberals are yet to claim victory.
In Macquarie, the Liberal candidate Sarah Richards leads sitting Labor member Susan Templeman by 50 votes in a contest that will come down to the wire.
Labor continues to lead in the Brisbane seat of Lilley vacated by former Treasurer Wayne Swan. Labor candidate Anika Wells is 901 votes ahead of Liberal Brad Carswell however the government has been whittling away Labor’s lead.
The government is currently leading is 78 seats while Labor is ahead in 67 seats. There will be six crossbench MPs in the new parliament.
Charlie Peel 1.05pm: Gladstone Ports boss sacked
The head of Queensland government-owned Gladstone Ports has been sacked over his handling of a disciplinary matter just weeks after the port was involved in a scandal when a worker was suspended for questioning Bill Shorten during a campaign visit.
Chief executive Peter O’Sullivan, who has been suspended for six months, was sacked by the board today but the matter is not related to the incident during the campaign.
To read the article in full click here.
Richard Ferguson 12.40pm: Climate change ‘no GetUp winner’
GetUp has conceded climate change is not the ballot box winner it thought it was, after a disastrous election night showing for the left-wing activist group.
Liberal MPs like Peter Dutton, Josh Frydenberg and Nicolle Flint were all targeted by GetUp! but the conservatives all held on. The only success for the group was ousting Tony Abbott in Warringah.
GetUp national director Paul Oosting admitted today that despite attracting 9000 volunteers, climate change issues did not damage the government in the way it had originally thought.
“We have seen reflected in the polls that the majority of Australians want to see the transition to renewables but that’s not, in this case, been reflected inside the polling booth. So we need to reflect there,” Mr Oosting told ABC Melbourne radio.
GetUp has been criticised for focusing its attention this election campaign on safe Liberal seats rather than a wider marginal-seat campaign to help Labor and the Greens.
The only Liberal target on GetUp’s list to lose his seat was Mr Abbott, the former prime minister, in Warringah.
“We decided as a movement we wanted to take on the leaders of the hard-right faction, most of whom are in safe seats, not marginal seats,” Mr Oosting said.
“We wanted to be present across the country where our members are and we chose seats accordingly … Tony Abbott in Warringah and Peter Dutton in Queensland.”
Mr Dutton saw a 2.12 swing to him in his Queensland seat of Dickson, but Mr Oosting claimed GetUp had still had an effect locally.
“His seat remains marginal as a result of our efforts and that’s something we’re proud of,” Mr Oosting said.
“It’s not the result we were after, we’ve got to now reflect on that and build from the foundations that we’ve established.”
Michael Roddan 12.10am: RBA clears way for June cut
The Reserve Bank of Australia has cleared a path to an interest-rate cut in June, with minutes the central bank’s latest board meeting showing members believed deterioration in the job market would warrant the first reduction since 2016.
Data last week, days after the RBA board in early May decided to hold the official cash rate steady, showed the unemployment rate has risen to 5.2 per cent in April, up from 4.9 per cent in February, while wages growth had also stalled at low levels.
“Members considered the scenario where there was no further improvement in the labour market in the period ahead, recognising that in those circumstances a decrease in the cash rate would likely be appropriate,” the minutes from its May 7 board meeting said.
To read the article in full, click here
11.50am: Interest in NZ move spikes
There’s been a statistical surge in the number of Australians looking at a move to New Zealand following last week’s election.
Immigration New Zealand says there was a more than tenfold increase in Australians looking at its website on Sunday and expressions of interest increased by more than 25 times on the same time the week before. More than 8500 people went to the New Zealand Now website the day after the election and 512 registered interest — the first step in the visa process — compared to about 20 registrations on May 12, the government department said. However as Australians don’t need visas to move to New Zealand, the actual implications of the figures aren’t yet clear.
“It is important to note these are purely registrations of interest in coming to New Zealand and does not necessarily translate to the number of people actually moving to New Zealand,” INZ general manager Greg Forsythe said. The department also noted the statistics included anyone currently in Australia, not just Australian citizens.
Since the coalition’s upset victory, social media has been abuzz with Aussies claiming they were looking across the ditch, not an unusual phenomenon after elections.
However University of Auckland politics professor Jennifer Curtin told Radio NZ the reaction was likely to fade as the realities of a move became more clear.
AAP
Richard Ferguson 11.15am: ‘I’m a bit over favourites’
Chris Bowen has conceded he is the underdog in the Labor leadership contest, but has pointed to last weekend’s federal election for comfort.
“I’m happy to concede that Albo probably goes in favourite. The Labor Party went in on Saturday as favourite, too,” he said in Western Sydney.
“I’m a bit over favourites. It doesn’t always work out so well.”
Mr Bowen also refused to say what he would do if Mr Albanese won the support of ALP members, as he did in the 2013 contest with Bill Shorten, but he won the support of the parliamentary caucus.
“We have a system. The system says that the Caucus has a say and whoever has the most votes in the end wins. That’s the system. The system that I support,” he said.
“It used to just be Caucus. I would expect that if it was just a Caucus vote, I would do pretty good. It’s not just that, it’s the party members vote. Albo, I’m sure, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“ We both were supporters of the new system when it came in. But the system means that you’ve got to try your luck with both.”
Richard Ferguson 11.03am: ‘I come from the suburbs’
Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen says he is the best person to be Labor leader because he understands suburban Australia and he has a strong grasp on economics.
“I come from the suburbs, from here. My wife and I are raising two wonderful kids down the road from here in Smithfield, the same suburb that I grew up in, in this house,” he said in Western Sydney.
“I can, I think, lead the economic debate, which we must win, as leader. We must win. In my experience.
“I’ve got some things right and some things wrong over the years. I’ve been in Parliament 15 years. I’m not perfect but I’ve learned.
“We have to win the economic growth story and I think that I can do that. I think that I can take the party to a good position on economic growth and creating jobs.
“We can’t leave jobs and growth to the other side.
“The Labor Party is the party of economic growth for the reasons that I outlined. To lead people out of poverty and into reality. I believe that I can add value there. The party members can weigh up the competing option and decide from there.”
.@Bowenchris on @AustralianLabor leadership: I think I've got something to offer. When you're Shadow Treasurer it's not often you get the chance to talk about your values. I welcome the chance to do that and I'm putting my name forward.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 21, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/tyxIk8GVkJ #NewsDay pic.twitter.com/NGloo0wT82
Richard Ferguson 10.55am: ‘Not a factional ballot’
Chris Bowen has conceded that he did not have the complete backing of his NSW Labor Right faction, and has had a rocky relationship with NSW Labor secretary Kaila Murnain.
“I’ve had my differences with Kaila at various points over the years. I’ve spoken to her. I would work very effectively with her. This is not a factional ballot,” he said in Western Sydney.
“I’ve spoken to most of my New South Wales Right colleagues. I’ve been encouraged by the level of support I’ve received from them, and continue to receive.
“But they’re not bound to vote for me. It’s not a New South Wales Right situation. Those who will vote for Albo will do so with my full understanding and blessing.
“Likewise, I’ve spoken to some in the left. Again I’m not going to reveal who said what to me about voting but I’m encouraged by their support.”
Mr Bowen also floated opposition social services spokeswoman Linda Burney and Labor climate change spokesman Mark Butler as his possible deputies.
.@Bowenchris: The deputy's position is entirely a matter for the caucus. Traditionally, if I won, the deputy would come from the left. If @tanya_plibersek would like to continue that would be fine with me. I'll work with whoever is elected.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 21, 2019
MORE: https://t.co/tyxIk8GVkJ #NewsDay pic.twitter.com/ramfJIZgVl
Richard Ferguson 10.50am: ‘I meant no offence’
Chris Bowen says he did not mean to offend people when he said that those that didn’t like his franking credit policies “shouldn’t vote for us”, but denies policies like his negative gearing reforms were unpopular.
“I don’t accept that all of our policies were unpopular. Sure, negative gearing was controversial. It also had a lot of support in a lot of segments, particularly young people,” he said in Western Sydney.
“On a particular comment that I made in that radio interview, what I was trying to say is that we have had the courage to put the policies out there for the Australian people to judge, unlike the Liberal Party, who, threw 100,000 people off the aged pension after saying no changes to the pension.
“That of the point that I was making. I could have worded it better, I’m happy to concede. I could have worded it better.
“I meant — no offence to anybody, but on the contrary, I deeply respect people who have worked hard and saved all their life. I respect them so much, we put the policy out there for them to judge.”
Bill Shorten has spoken to Chris Bowen and encouraged him to run for Labor leader #auspol
— Troy Bramston (@TroyBramston) May 21, 2019
Richard Ferguson 10.45am: ‘Franking credits didn’t lose election’
Chris Bowen has denied his controversial tax policies lost Labor the election, despite a backlash from both voters and Labor MPs to the franking credit reforms.
“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Some say Labor lost the election because of frank credits which is a policy that I designed,” he said in Western Sydney today.
I designed it. I designed it to invest more in schools and hospitals, to give Labor a good program of investment.
“We lost this election for a whole range of reasons — some of probably we haven’t yet determined.
“Franking credits was a controversial policy. A controversial policy, for which, no doubt, we lost some votes. But I don’t accept that it is why we lost the election in its entirety.
“We also lost the election because the policies we don’t have, like a death tax. They are more people raising the death tax on the polling booths with me than on the franking credits.”
Richard Ferguson 10.40am: ‘Labor deserves contest’
Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen has launched his Labor leadership bid outside his childhood home in Western Sydney, saying he wants a “contest of ideas”.
“Anthony Albanese is a friend of mine, a good man. I this that he would make a good leader of the Labor Party,” he said in Smithfield today.
“And if he wins the ballot, he will have my full and undivided loyalty. But I think that the party deserves contest. I think that the party deserves choice. It deserves to hear competing ideas. I think it would be wrong of me not to provide that choice to the party.
“I believe in growth and opportunity, economic growth. I believe in reconnecting with the suburbs like this and the regions.
“I believe in connecting with people from all walks of life — manufacturing workers for example. Just up the road from here is the Smithfield Weatherill Park industrial estate, the biggest industrial estate in the Southern Hemisphere.
“I believe in Government working with private sector to ensure that Australia has a manufacturing future.
“I believe in these things deeply. I believe that this Government has no plans or policies for economic growth for the future. Economic growth lifts people out of poverty, turns aspiration into reality. It is the poverty alleviation program ever invented.”
The flu virus has killed another 10 people in South Australia, raising the state’s total to 27 since the beginning of the year. https://t.co/19kgz1Wl4R
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 21, 2019
Sid Maher 10.35am: PM edges closer to majority
Scott Morrison is edging closer to majority government with the Coalition becoming increasingly confident in the Victorian seat of Chisholm and leading in the Tasmanian seat of Bass.
The Liberal Party candidate in Chisholm Gladys Liu is leading Labor’s Jennifer Yang by 591 votes and is winning the postal vote race. However absentee ballots are expected to favour Labor.
A win in Chisholm would give the government 76 seats in the 151 House of Representatives and a bare majority.
In Bass the Liberal candidate Bridget Archer is 392 votes ahead of sitting Labor member Ross Hart.
Mr Hart is reportedly pessimistic about his chances but the Liberals are yet to claim victory.
In Macquarie, the Liberal candidate Sarah Richards leads sitting Labor member Susan Templeman by 50 votes in a contest that will come down to the wire.
Labor continues to lead in the Brisbane seat of Lilley vacated by former Treasurer Wayne Swan. Labor candidate Anika Wells is 901 votes ahead of Liberal Brad Carswell however the government has been whittling away Labor’s lead.
The government is currently leading is 78 seats while Labor is ahead in 67 seats. There will be six crossbench MPs in the new parliament.
In Hunter Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon has a 4368 lead over his Nationals rival Josh Angus. However One Nation’s Stuart Bonds trails the National by only 1752.
There is a remote possibility he could get ahead of Mr Angus when preferences are distributed which could put the seat in play in a Labor versus One Nation contest.
Richard Ferguson 9.45am: Tax cuts delivered on time
Scott Morrison’s promised tax cuts will be delivered by the 2019-20 financial year, with the Australian Tax Office it can pass on the promised changes if Labor agrees to them.
There was speculation in other media outlets this morning that the tax cuts would not be passed on as the Prime Minister said parliament was unlikely to sit before June 30.
“Tax relief will be delivered in 2019-20 as promised,” a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said.
“And will not be delayed by a year by the parliament not sitting in June as speculated in the media today.”
An Australian Tax Office spokesman this morning said the tax cuts could be administered retrospectively if necessary law changes are passed after June.
And if Labor agrees to the changes before parliament returns, then the ATO could reflect the cuts in people’s tax home pay immediately.
To read the article in full, click here.
Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP is shaping up for a fight on his tax cut promise. The tax cuts were a central feature of the Coalition's election campaign. In his first TV interview since Saturday night's victory, he says he wants them passed before June 30. @AndreaLNicolas pic.twitter.com/zY0d3WaLJS
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) May 20, 2019
Sid Maher 9.43am: Fitzgibbon’s leadership ultimatum
Joel Fitzgibbon has delivered an ultimatum to any potential Labor leadership candidate that he or she needs to provide a guarantee in writing of support for rural and regional Australia or he will contest the leadership ballot himself.
Mr Fitzgibbon, the longstanding member for Hunter in rural NSW who was agriculture minister in the previous Opposition led by Bill Shorten, said he would rather a younger candidate contest the leadership but unless there was a seat at the table for the bush the ALP would continue to make the same mistakes.
To read the article in full, click here.
Richard Ferguson 9.40am: Albo may stick with franking credits
Labor leadership contender Anthony Albanese has opened the door to the Opposition sticking with franking credits reforms under his helm, instead suggesting a grandfathering of any reforms and adding a cap.
“The truth is that the cost to the budget is that the government, in my view, will have to have a look at these arrangements,” he told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.
“In terms of the franking credits … one of the options that could have been considered is putting a cap on it and that would have ensured that the people who were not getting huge amounts of money (were not affected) … You could have done that.
“And you could have done a combination of that and grandfathering as well.”
Richard Ferguson 9.10am: Albo dismisses Bowen challenge
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has brushed aside news he will be challenged by opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen for the ALP leadership.
“I’m not running to compare myself to any potential candidate or any real candidate,” he told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.
“I’m not running against Chris Bowen or anyone else. I’m running against Scott Morrison.”
Greg Brown 8.45am: Bowen to run
The Australian has confirmed Chris Bowen will run as the Right candidate for the Labor leadership
Richard Ferguson 8.30am: Watt — Albo best person
Left-aligned Labor senator Murray Watt publicly backs Anthony Albanese for the Labor leadership, but wants opposition finance spokesman Jim Chalmers to play “a senior role.”
“It’s not only because of my factional allegiances. I genuinely believe that across the party, Albo is the person who can do the job … which is bridging our different bridges in inner cities, in the outer suburbs, and in regional Australia,” the inner-city Brisbane based senator told ABC radio.
“I have been with Albo in every single one of those geographic regions and I’ve seen how well people related to him. I’ve seen how well he can communicate and connect with people in each of those patches.
“I’m a big fan of Jim Chalmers, especially as a Queenslander, and I’d like to see Jim play a senior role in our next team. But I’ll certainly be supporting Albo.”
Senator Watt also said he would prefer for the party to avoid a contested ballot for the leadership.
“I think it’s always cleaner if you can avoid a messy ballot … the membership are pretty big fans of Anthony Albanese as well. So I’d be comfortable whether they’d be a ballot or not.”
Greg Brown 8.00am: Bowen expected to run
Senior Labor figures are expecting Chris Bowen to throw his hat in the ring for the Labor leadership.
Right-wing powerbrokers told The Australian Mr Bowen was firming as a candidate to take on NSW Left MP Anthony Albanese.
Opposition finance spokesman Jim Chalmers was going to run as the Labor Right candidate if Mr Bowen did not contest.
Mr Bowen’s office has been contacted for comment.
Richard Ferguson 7.45am: Albo gets Katter support
Anthony Albanese has received support for his Labor leadership bid from an unlikely source — far north Queensland maverick independent Bob Katter.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the conservative MP will publicly endorse Mr Albanese as he believes he understands the Queensland economy and has a more acceptable stance on religious freedom than Bill Shorten.
“Albo has been an ordinary worker. As have I. The night I saw him at the Hughenden pub I was amazed. Graziers, knockabout blokes, they were all equally at ease with Albo,” Mr Katter told The Daily Telegraph.
“He wouldn’t have made the criminal mistakes Labor did in this election.”
Mr Katter has had a long relationship with the Labor movement, despite his support for conservative governments, and has received political donations from left-wing unions like the CFMEU as recently as 2015-16.
Richard Ferguson 7.35am: Fitzgibbon: I’ll run if need be
Opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon says he will run for the Labor leadership if a younger Right candidate does not challenge Anthony Albanese.
“I am considering it, yes. I’d much rather someone else do it. But if I need to do it to secure the new path, the new direction we need, I certainly will,” he told the Nine Network this morning.
“We need to get back to our working class base and send a clear message that we are on their side. I want to put Labor back into the Labor Party.”
Mr Fitzgibbon also said that the Opposition was punished for “fence-sitting” on certain issues like Adani as much it was for taking big, controversial reforms to the polls.
“You know we need to revisit all of our policies. I am into the sure that the policy settings were the big problem. Of course, they were a problem. Of course, they were a problem.
“I think more particularly, we found ourselves sitting on the fence on a couple of issues. If our formal policy is to support the coal mining industry and the export of coal, say it.
“Because if you do support it then surely you welcome new coal mining. The Queensland Government approved a huge coal mine in Queensland during the campaign. It got hardly any attention. It was all about Adani.
“We should have recognise it was all about Adani and we should have done something about Adani.”
7.10am: PM, Frydenberg talk tax cuts
Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg will meet to discuss the economy and tax cuts as Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe prepares to make a major speech on the outlook for Australia.
Three federal seats are on a knife edge as vote counting continues and this could push back the start of parliament if the results go down to the wire. At the same time, key crossbench senators are still to pledge their support for the tax plan.
AAP
What’s making news:
Jim Chalmers is considering running against Anthony Albanese for the party leadership after being encouraged by the Right faction.
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Furious Labor MPs are urging the next leadership team to dump Bill Shorten’s tax agenda and end class warfare.
ABC staff have been warned to brace for cuts following Scott Morrison’s shock election win, with the national broadcaster needing to find $14.6 million in savings in the next financial year.
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