Australia news as it happened: Price says people ‘would love to see’ her as PM; Ley becomes Opposition leader; Goldstein, Bradfield votes close

That’s a wrap for today’s blog! As mentioned in the last post there are still three seats still too close to call nine days after election day. We will have more for you in our next coverage.

Here’s what else you should know about today’s events:

• Sussan Ley is the new leader of the Liberal Party, and as such the new federal Opposition Leader. She beat shadow-treasurer Angus Taylor 29 votes to 25 in a ballot today. Ted O’Brien is her deputy, and Jacinta Nampijinpa-Price decided not to run in the deputy contest after all.
• Speaking of Nampijinpa-Price, she said this afternoon there are many Australians that want to see her as Prime Minister… but also that she hopes the party rallies behind Ley.
• The government’s new ministry, announced yesterday, was officially sworn in by the Governor-General.
• The vote counts in two Liberal vs teal contests - Goldstein in Melbourne and Bradfield in Sydney - are still tight despite both seats being called for the Liberals.
• And the Queensland seat of Ryan is returning to the Greens. Here’s what the successful MP thinks of that given her other three lower house colleagues were voted out.

The voters in the seat of Flinders, southeast off Melbourne, are among hundreds of thousands of voters still waiting to see who will be their new MP.

The sitting Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie just provided this update on Facebook: “The count in Flinders continues, with fierce jostling in the numbers between second and third. I was asked to join the Party Room today while results are still pending, and I was proud to do so.”

McKenzie faced a strong challenge from both Labor’s Sarah Race and Climate 200-funded independent Ben Smith.

A few hours later, Smith provided some extra context on his own Facebook page.

“Through to today, the AEC have been undertaking a complex count on a three-candidate preferred basis (between Labor, Liberal and Independent),” he wrote.

“The AEC have this afternoon declared they are now moving forward with a two-candidate-preferred count between myself and the Liberal Party to determine the outcome - so just a little more waiting to go folks.”

Elsewhere, Calwell in northern Melbourne and Longman in Queensland are also too close to call.

In Longman, sitting Liberal MP Terry Young now leads by just 162 votes over the ALP’s Rhiannyn Douglas.

Good evening Alexander Darling here to take you through to the end of today’s blog.

We’ve got some expert analysis on Sussan Ley’s rise and the new ministry being sworn in, here’s a taste:

Natassia Chrysanthos: ”The Liberal Party’s worst electoral wipeout has led to it choosing its first female leader.

Sussan Ley’s ascension to head of the federal Liberal Party will be celebrated as a milestone that has eluded the party for years. But it’s not a simple story of broken glass ceilings: Ley’s leadership success will depend on how she fixes a wounded brand that must claw its way back to relevance.”

Jenna Price on Tanya Plibersek: “I think she will make an enormous contribution for reasons well beyond politics: family and domestic violence.”

Sticking with Jacinta Price’s interview, the new Liberal Senator has offered her grudging support for Liberal leader Sussan Ley.

Asked if the Liberal party room would unite behind Ley, Price said that should be the aim of her colleagues.

“Well, that is the hope,” she said.

“I will be supporting the leadership because that is what we have to do if we want to do a good job in opposition.”

Freshly minted Liberal Senator Jacinta Price, who earlier today withdrew her nomination to be deputy party leader when it became clear she lacked support, has just finished her first interview since the partyroom vote.

And it did not fail to deliver remarkable results.

Jacinta PriceCredit: AFR

Price previously sat in the Nationals party room, but angered her former colleagues when she switched to the Liberals to run as deputy to leadership contender Angus Taylor.

The party room opted instead for Sussan Ley and Ted O’Brien for leader and deputy, respectively.

Undaunted by the opinion of her new colleagues, Price just told Sky News she had broad support for the nation’s top job.

When prodded by host Chris Kenny if she’d consider switching from the Senate to the lower house so she could have a tilt at PM, she said “well, there is that”.

“I know there’s a lot of Australians who’d love to see that,” Price declared.

However, she wrapped up by confirming that currently “my focus is the Senate”.

The only Greens MP in the House of Representatives has promised to fight for progressive reform after the minor party’s near wipeout in the lower house.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown was the only lower house Greens member to hold on at the federal election, recording a narrow victory in the Brisbane seat of Ryan today.

The Greens went into the election with four seats but lost three to Labor, including leader Adam Bandt’s electorate of Melbourne.

The other two to lose their seats were both Queenslanders like Watson-Brown: Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith) and Stephen Bates (Brisbane).

This happened despite the party’s primary vote largely holding up (11.94% of first preferences, a decrease of 0.31%).

The party will elect its next leader on Thursday.

Ms Watson-Brown, who said the party would examine where it went wrong, pledged to continue the work of her former colleagues.

“It might be a little bit lonely on the floor,” she told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday.

“I am desperately going to miss my mates. They were incredible.”

With AAP

Crossing over to the Melbourne seat of Goldstein, Liberal Tim Wilson’s lead over Zoe Daniel has narrowed as counting continues, but he should still hang on to win the seat.

Wilson claimed victory in the seat last week, but Daniel has not yet conceded. On Friday she called those watching on to “respect the process” until a “definitive position” was clear.

Tim Wilson was the only Liberal to win back a previously teal seat.Credit: Paul Jeffers

The Liberal candidate is only 664 votes ahead of Daniel on the latest count, leading with a 50.3 per cent margin over Daniel’s 49.7 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.

The Australian Electoral Commission still has 3426 votes to count, the majority of which are declaration pre-poll votes and absentee votes.

However, analyst Ben Raue of The Tally Room said the late surge to Daniel in the count was unlikely to get her over the line.

“I suspect she will probably do a bit better on absentee and pre-polls than she was on the postals, but I suspect it is probably too late,” he said.

“I suspect nothing is going to change in Goldstein. I think it is probably not enough.”

Here are the details of votes still to be counted:

• 571 postal votes are still waiting to be counted with more set to arrive during the week until the deadline on Friday. A total of 24,299 postal votes were issued with 21,053 returned. Some will never be returned.
• 1625 declaration pre-poll votes: These were cast at pre-poll centres outside a voter’s home division and need to be verified before they can be counted. 2068 declaration pre-poll votes have already been counted.
• 1035 absentee votes: Cast on election day by people voting outside their enrolled electorate, these are verified and sent back to the correct division. 3000 absentee votes have already been counted.
• 195 provisional votes: These are from voters whose eligibility wasn’t certain at the time of voting. They’re only counted if the voter is later confirmed to be eligible. About half of these have been counted but the other half remain.

That brings us to a total of 3426 votes still outstanding as of 3.30pm Tuesday.

Follow our extensive coverage of the Victorian hot seats here.

Focus is returning to Bradfield which we (along with almost everyone else) had given to the Liberal Gisele Kapterian.

So confident was the Liberal Party in this result, Kapterian even cast a ballot in today’s leadership vote.

Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian casts her vote in the Sydney seat of Bradfield at the federal election.Credit: Steven Siewert

But her independent opponent, Nicolette Boele, is now just 59 votes behind and making ground awfully fast. Early yesterday, Kapterian was more than 200 votes in front.

There are still almost 1600 votes to be counted, of which the most important are 880 declaration pre-polls. These are favouring Boele 51.8-48.2 on a two-party preferred basis.

Even if Boele fails to catch Kapterian, there’s a good chance of a full recount given the likely narrow outcome.

The nearly 6300 people who cast an informal vote in this seat might be kicking themselves right about now.

The Fair Work Commission has launched a second investigation into Diana Asmar and allegations she oversaw revenge sackings of her enemies in the fallout over claims Health Workers Union funds were misappropriated under her leadership.

Confirmation of the fresh investigation emerged on Tuesday during a Federal Court hearing to consider whether the troubled Victorian branch should be placed into full administration.

Health Workers Union boss Diana Asmar.Credit: Justin McManus

As revealed by The Age on May 2, the Health Services Union’s national executive has reached an in-principle agreement with Asmar for her to step down as HWU secretary so that the branch can be put into full administration to avoid a protracted court battle.

Asmar is still facing a Fair Work Commission civil action resulting from its initial investigation – revealed in The Age – alleging a printing business received $2.7 million in HWU member funds for no service, with the money instead going into private accounts.

The allegations include that more than $120,000 in reimbursements was claimed without evidence of relevant business expenses.

Asmar has privately denied the allegations she misappropriated funds.

HSU counsel Malcolm Harding, SC, told the court the HWU had unravelled after March 2024 when Asmar received notice of that investigation, allegedly triggering a series of reprisal staff sackings that left the branch unable to function, and which now required it to be placed into administration.

It was also revealed Asmar had received a notice from the commission on April 26, 2025, to notify her it was investigating “credible information” that she had sacked HWU staff, including senior organiser Jake McGuinness, in reprisal for acting against her.

Representing Asmar, Jonathon Moore, KC, asked the court not to make comment about allegations of the misappropriation of funds for printing, nor of reprisal sackings, to avoid prejudicing the Fair Work Commission’s civil prosecution.

Justice Craig Dowling has reserved a decision about whether to place the HWU in permanent administration.

We started with 150, now we’re down to the final three: Calwell, Flinders and Longman.

They are the last remaining seats in the lower house still to be called by this masthead’s decision desk, which has been dutifully poring over electoral data and preference counts since polling day (not to mention a few coffees).

Matt Wade and Shane Wright have now called the Brisbane seat of Ryan for the Greens, their last remaining holdout in the lower house; the Liberal v teal independent contests of Bradfield and Kooyong were settled on Monday, while Bean (ACT), Fisher (QLD) and Monash (VIC) have all been called since the weekend.

Read a bit more about the three seats still too close to call — and the whopping 18 that changed hands on or since May 3 here.