Tanya Plibersek beats Anthony Albanese to top spot on ALP primary votes

Tanya Plibersek has been re-elected as the highest-polling MP in the country on primary votes, but that didn’t help her keep her portfolios.

David Tanner

Former environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek, who has been handed the social services portfolio in the new Albanese ministry. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

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Tanya Plibersek lost her environment and water portfolio and was shunted into social services in Anthony Albanese’s new-look ministry but she can lay claim to the honour of being the MP with the highest primary vote in the country.

The Sydney MP picked up a 4.6 per cent swing to lift her first-preference vote to 55.7 per cent, leapfrogging the Prime Minister for the first time since she entered parliament in 1998.

Ms Plibersek replaces Education Minister Jason Clare, whose primary vote slumped amid opposition from a Muslim Votes Matter candidate running against him, as the highest-polling Labor MP in the country and succeeds Nationals leader David Littleproud as the highest-polling MP of any stripe.

Mr Albanese, as well as seeing his neighbour overtake him on primary votes, dropped from having the second-highest primary vote after the 2022 election to be third on current counting at 53.9 per cent.

In a reminder that Labor’s often-described “thumping” victory was in seats but not primary votes, only nine Labor MPs were on track to reach the electoral holy grail of 50 per cent, one more than after the 2022 election, while two more were within 100 votes of the mark in latest counting on Monday.

Jim Chalmers – still fresh from handing out tax cuts in his March budget and helping to sandbag his electorate as Cyclone Alfred threatened to devastate Brisbane – was a noteworthy entrant into the 50-plus club, securing a primary vote swing of more than 6 per cent in his previously marginal seat of Rankin.

Other new entrants to Labor’s 50-plus club were Andrew Leigh (Fenner, ACT), who is newly in charge of lifting Australia’s flagging productivity, Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, SA), who has been promoted to the employment and workplace relations portfolios, Milton Dick (Oxley, Qld) and Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, NSW).

Both former Labor ministers dumped from the frontbench polled strongly on May 3. Former industry and science minister Ed Husic kept his primary vote above 53 per cent, the sixth highest of any Labor MP, while axed attorney-general Mark Dreyfus was still with a chance of passing 50 per cent after securing a swing of 7.1 per cent in his Melbourne seat of Isaacs with more than 8000 votes still to be counted.

Three previously high-flying Labor MPs dropped below the 50 per cent primary vote threshold – Mr Clare (Blaxland, NSW), his neighbour Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke (Watson, NSW) and Matt Keogh (Burt, WA) – while the new candidate in the Sydney seat of Barton, Ash Ambihaipar, couldn’t replicate her predecessor Linda Burney’s primary vote of more than 50 per cent.

Jason Clare. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

The Liberal Party, meanwhile, was on track to fail to secure a primary vote of more than 50 per cent in any seat, with leadership contender Sussan Ley (Farrer, NSW), Simon Kennedy (Cook, NSW), Alex Hawke (Mitchell, NSW) and Tony Pasin (Barker, SA) dropping below the mark after swings against them. Ms Ley had one of the largest swings of any Liberal, losing almost 9 per cent of her primary vote as she battled both a Labor candidate and a teal.

After the 2019 election victory, 22 Liberal MPs won with primary votes above 50 per cent. Labor has also gone backwards on primary votes since 2019, when 14 of its MPs were elected on first preferences alone, despite winning the next two elections.

Labor was re-elected with 34.7 per cent of the primary vote, a swing of 2 per cent on the 2022 result.

Four Nationals reached the 50 per cent primary-vote mark: Mr Littleproud (Maranoa, Qld), former leader Barnaby Joyce (New England, NSW), Darren Chester (Gippsland, Vic) and Anne Webster (Mallee, Vic).

Ms Plibersek’s primary vote will fall short of Mr Littleproud’s 56.3 per cent at the 2022 poll.