Australian voters have delivered a sharp rejection of Scott Morrison.
This is the starting point of the unfolding election result. The Coalition has lost government.
And Anthony Albanese will become only the fourth Labor leader to win office from Opposition since the second world war.
The question now becomes one of whether Labor can form a majority government or be forced into a coalition of its own with left wing independents and the Greens.
With a Liberal bloodbath in Western Australia the former outcome was looking most likely.
But it would be a mistake to take this as an endorsement of an Albanese government.
There has been a primary vote swing against both the Coalition and Labor, which finds itself forming government despite mustering the support of only one in three Australians.
The expression of such a deep electoral disillusionment is an extraordinary development and one that will deliver a blow to the existing Australian political architecture with implications for years to come.
This is the big story of this election, with a left wing dominated crossbench of anywhere up to a dozen.
The rejection of both the Liberal party and Labor on this scale, the corresponding shift toward independent and minor parties, on both the left and right, is without precedent.
The Coalition has lost ground to left leaning independents in its traditional base in the well-heeled inner city electorates. This has cost them seats. It has also cost the party a future leader and delivered a generational rout of the moderates.
It has also lost ground, but not seats, from its right wing base to the Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
Labor has yielded further to the Greens on the left. But it is has suffered significant swings against it in blue collar outer suburban seats on the east coast as well.
The bottom line is that people have walked away from the major parties in droves.
With such historically low primary vote for both major parties, there will also be major implications for the Senate.
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