Federal election 2025: What farmers need to know

Our political experts have analysed the news farmers and those in the regions need to know. Use our interactive graphics to see results from every electorate.

10PM

The Nationals have held their ground in Saturday’s federal election, with a minor swing to the party of 0.07 per cent based on their primary vote.

In contrast, the Liberals suffered a nationwide swing of 3.26 per cent against them.

In Victoria, Nationals Mallee MP Anne Webster was on Saturday night sitting on a two-party preferred vote of 71.84 per cent — a swing of 2.85 per cent.

In Gippsland, Darren Chester’s primary vote was down 1.6 per cent but preferences from One Nation pushed his two party preferred vote to more than 70 per cent.

It was a similar story in the state’s north where Sam Birrell retained the seat of Nicholls with almost 66 per cent of the vote.

For the Liberals the seat of Wannon was still in doubt as of Saturday night, but the party’s flagbearer Dan Tehan was on track to win the seat from independent Alex Dyson.

9.26PM

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins is making headway in her contest with independent candidate Peter George in the southern Tasmanian seat of Franklin.

The Labor cabinet minister has 38.07 per cent of primary votes, compared to George’s 23.33 per cent. The Liberal Party has lost ground in the electorate, with a swing of 7.55 against it.

The Greens have still managed to secure more than 11 per cent of primary votes, despite candidate Owen Fitzgerald bowing out of the campaign after discovering his New Zealand citizenship in the final weeks of the election campaign. The One Nation vote is up 2.12 per cent, and Jacqui Lambie Network vote is down 5.53 per cent.

8.52PM

Counting has a long way to go in Calare, but with 41 of 83 polling places having returned their ballot papers, incumbent and former Nationals MP Andrew Gee is leading in the two candidate preferred count.

But Nationals candidate Sam Farraway is leading in first preference votes; almost 8400 compared to Gee’s 7130 at 8.41PM.

In Indi, there’s been a swing of 2.17 per cent towards incumbent independent MP Helen Haines, who had more than 42 per cent of first preference at 8.46PM, and 57.4 per cent of the projected two candidate preferred vote, with Liberal candidate James Trenery on 42.6 per cent.

8.22PM

The Coalition’s bid to win government appears to be over, with Labor leading in 77 seats, one more than it needs to form a majority government.

Sky News has called the election in favour of Labor, locking in a second term for the Albanese Government.

Taking a look at some regional seats across the country, here are the results at 8.17PM:

Nationals leader David Littleproud has seen a 3.28 swing against him, but has still won half of all first preference votes in the southern Queensland seat of Maraona, one of safest in the country.

Incumbent Gippsland MP Darren Chester has secured almost 52 per cent of primary votes, with little sign of a contest from Labor’s candidate Sonny Stephens. Forty-six of 70 polling places have returned their first preference ballot papers in the eastern Victorian electorate.

With larger regional centres such as Warrnambool, Hamilton and Colac still returning votes, Wannon’s contest between Liberal MP Dan Tehan and independent challenger Alex Dyson is getting tighter.

As of 8.15pm, Mr Tehan’s primary vote sits at 42.5 per cent, Mr Dyson’s primary vote at 32.4 per cent with a collapse in the Labor and Green primary tally.

Two-thirds of Wannon’s booths have been counted so far, with sources in both camps telling The Weekly Times in the lead up to election day that a definitive result is unlikely to be known tonight.

8PM

Both Labor and the Coalition have taken a hit to their nationwide primary vote as Australia starts to get a clearer picture of its next government.

Analysts are predicting either a Labor minority or majority government as of 8pm, with the Coalition’s prospects of winning plurality fading by the minute.

Just ahead of the 8pm mark with only a small fraction of the national vote counted, Labor’s nationwide vote is at 30.2 per cent while the Coalition’s nationwide primary sits at 32.3 per cent, the Greens at 12.3 per cent and One Nation at 7.5 per cent.

The biggest gains in the national tally appear to be in the ‘other’ category at more than 15 per cent, reflecting the rise of the teal and community independent movement.

Results from several safe seats are already unquestionable, with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles returned in his seat of Corio, Gippsland MP Darren Chester, Mallee MP Anne Webster, Nicholls MP Sam Birrell and maverick Kennedy MP Bob Katter all set to be re-elected.

7.42PM

Franklin MP Julie Collins has taken the lead over independent candidate and anti-salmon crusader Peter George. Early votes had George just in front of the incumbent MP, but Collins now has 36.2 per cent of primary votes, with George securing 24.9 per cent. Almost half of all polling states have returned their first preference votes in the southern Tasmanian electorate.

7.28PM

Wannon MP Dan Tehan is leading independent candidate Alex Dyson in primary votes in the South Western Victorian electorate, with the incumbent member securing 47 per cent of votes, compared to Dysons’s 32 per cent.

Labor’s vote in Wannon is down almost 8 per cent, as is the Greens’, which is down 2 per cent.

Mallee is set to re-elect National Party MP Anne Webster with the incumbent winning on first preferences alone.

As of 7.30pm, Dr Webster has an enormous two-party preferred lead of 78 per cent to Labor candidate Greg Olsen on 22 per cent – although that figure will contract somewhat as larger booths based in Mildura and Horsham roll in.

Mallee has always been held by the Country and National parties since its creation at the 1949 election, when Robert Menzies was swept to power.

7.15PM:

The Nationals’ investment in Bendigo appears to be paying off, with votes for incumbent Labor MP Lisa Chesters and Nationals candidate Andrew Lethlean almost on par, with the pair securing 31 and 29 per cent of first preferences votes respectively.

Chesters has a swing of 10.20 per cent against her, while the Nationals have a 27.68 per cent swing in their favour.

6.50PM:

Early results for National Party MP Darren Chester have him with an unsurprisingly strong lead in Gippsland.

On a two-party preferred result before 7pm, Mr Chester was at 74.3 per cent to Labor candidate Sonny Stephens on 25.7 per cent.

Mr Chester has one of the safest conservative seats in the country, with only National Party leader David Littleproud holding Maronoa on a larger majority.

In Ballarat, from the three polling stations whose first preferences votes have been returned, incumbent Labor MP and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King has witnessed a slight swing against her of 2.36 per cent, while Liberal candidate Paula Doran has so far secured 45 per cent of votes.

EARLIER:

For many Australians, “the cost of living”, that ubiquitous phrase that has come to describe the toughness of today’s economic climate, will define this federal election.

For farmers, it’s not just the cost of living but also the cost of working amid rising input costs – from fuel and fertiliser to labour and energy – and volatile global trade that will influence their vote.

While there is increasing uncertainty in the veracity of political polls, recent results have Labor winning with a decisive majority.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s approval rating has improved over the past fortnight, while Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s has progressively dropped since the election was called in late March.

It’s been a sprint to Election Day, with a five week campaign kicking off shortly after the Albanese Government’s 2025-26 budget.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has been on the “wombat trail” across regional Australia spruiking the Coalition’s nuclear energy and water policies, a regional Australia future fund to pay for better healthcare, childcare, road infrastructure and telecommunications services and pledges to repeal live export legislation and bring back an agriculture visa.

Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton have largely stuck to the capital cities and their urban fringes while on the campaign trail, aside from sporadic visits to more far flung towns in Western Australia and Queensland.

The Prime Minister is selling a message of a stronger Medicare, investing in Australian manufacturing, building 1.2m homes and protecting the climate and environment.

The Coalition’s “plan to get Australia back on track” is focused on cheaper petrol, support for first home buyers, matching Labor’s investment in Medicare and fixing regional roads.

To form a majority government in the newly condensed 150-seat House of Representatives, Labor or the Coalition need to win 76 seats.

Labor currently holds 78 seats, but with the loss of Melbourne’s inner southeastern seat of Higgins, it’s down to 77.

The Coalition is confronted with the sizeable task of needing to win 22 seats on top of the 54 it has to form a majority government.

But one of the biggest stories to come from the last federal election was that one in three Australians voted for an independent candidate.

Whether the record 19-member crossbench was an anomaly of the 2022 election will be put to the test on Saturday, with many political observers predicting it to swell once again as the independent movement seriously targets regional Australia for the first time.

The fundraising group led by lawyer Helen McGowan – sister of former Indi MP Cathy McGowan – called the Regional Voices Fund is backing 13 candidates to contest regional seats across Australia.

This year’s election is set against a backdrop of a potential recession following updated economic forecasts from the International Monetary Fund of downgraded growth forecasts for developed countries across the world, Australia included.

As the dust settles on a new global trading system with Trump at the helm in the United States, the extent to which those forecasts will be played out remain unknown, but regardless of the gravity of a global trading reset, little has been spoken by either side of politics about how Australia will address its own ballooning debt, welfare costs and reliance on a growing tax take.

One in five voters in Australia’s most marginal seats have already cast their vote, and election analysts believe more than half of all votes will have been cast before Saturday.

But counting won’t begin until 6pm on Saturday night when polling place doors close.

The result for each polling station is usually known within a few hours but a final result for some electorates can take weeks.

The Weekly Times will update this page as results become known, with the earliest results likely to be from smaller polling stations in regional seats.