Australian Federal election results 2025 recap May 5: Jacqui Lambie in battle with Lee Hanson for Senate spot

AAP’s Dominic Giannini reports: A string of factors rather than a standout reason is being blamed on Liberal failings as the party recorded its worst election defeat in history.

MPs and insiders were left dismayed at how poorly the party performed after internal numbers set an expectation they would go forward, not backward, losing at least 13 seats and potentially up to 19.

And a blame game has already started.

Liberal senator Hollie Hughes, who lost her pre-selection and blames Mr Taylor for his factional dealings, was scathing in her assessment of his role in the defeat.

“I don’t know what he’s been doing for three years. There was no tax policy, no economic narrative,” she told ABC TV.

While a lack of a coherent economic plan was a common critique within the party, insiders also complained of a presidential-style campaign that involved captain’s calls from Mr Dutton.

Read the full story here.

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has weighed in on Anthony Albanese’s landslide election win, urging the Liberal Party to “learn from the loss and rebuild”.

The executive chair of Hancock Prospecting said while the result was “devastating” for the Coalition, it was important not to “throw away truth and analysing skills, and instead learn from the loss and rebuild”.

“Australians have overwhelmingly voted in returning the PM and Government, we must wish him well,” she said, saying Labor should “carefully consider” its policies.

“Let’s not forget, many of the returned government are parents too, do they really want to bring in ideological policies that will see the economy suffer and their children struggle?

“Let’s use this time to build, to enlarge the foundations of common sense, rationale and truth.”

Read the full story here.

Since claiming victory on Saturday night, Anthony Albanese has been pretty active on social media, spruiking his work ethic and commitment to Australians.

In a post to X this afternoon he wrote: “Walking to Parliament House is always a privilege. Straight back to building Australia’s future” along with a photo of himself strutting back to parliament.

His post received a mixed response.

Some were critical of his return:

“By “building Australia’s future”, do you mean like the last 3 years?” one user commented.

“Albanese wins again. And Australia loses a little more of its soul,” said another.

“Remember, you won because the Libs was a disaster, not because you are right. There is course correction needed on many issues,” stated another X user.

While others simply gave their congratulations:

“Be fearless Anthony. You have an opportunity to set Australia for the next 50 years. All the best,” one wrote.

“Congratulations, mate... No way was Australia getting on track with Dutton. Congratulations to Labor,” replied another.

AAP’s Stephanie Gardiner reports: Standing in a drying paddock before Christmas, National Party Leader David Littleproud declared the seat of Calare key to a coalition election victory.

But in a symbolic defeat, the Nationals have been unable to claw back the rural NSW electorate from a party defector.

Andrew Gee, an independent who quit the Nationals in late 2022 over the party’s opposition to an Indigenous voice to parliament, retained Calare, claiming victory over Sam Farraway.

The Nationals otherwise stayed the course in Saturday’s Federal election despite the Liberal Party’s disastrous result.

Mr Gee held 56 per cent of the vote on a two-candidate preferred basis on Monday morning, as Mr Farraway conceded defeat.

“It was a real David and Goliath battle in many ways,” Mr Gee told AAP on Monday.

“We were heavily outspent ... and we were heavily outgunned in terms of advertising and personnel on the ground.

“We ran a very grassroots campaign ... it was the community connection which really helped me to get through right across the region.”

Read the full story here

Greens Leader Adam Bandt may be staring down the barrel of defeat but he isn’t entertaining the thought of losing his seat or party control just yet.

The Greens are ahead in the Queensland seat of Ryan but have lost nearby Brisbane and Griffith after their primary vote fell by about 0.4 per cent across the country.

Mr Bandt’s seat of Melbourne remains in doubt, trailing Labor’s Sarah Witty by almost 2900 estimated votes after initial preference counts.

The minor party leader said numbers would move around in coming days but his scrutineers were “confident” of retaining the seat despite postal vote preference flows traditionally favouring Labor.

“What they haven’t done in Melbourne is conduct a full two-preference count of all the ordinary votes and told that that’s something that might not even happen until later in the week,” he told reporters on Monday.

Read the full story here.

Linda Reynolds is backing Sussan Ley, ahead of local contender Andrew Hastie, to lead the Liberal party in the wake of a Federal election campaign she called a “catastrophic failure”.

The retiring WA Senator and former Defence Minister said female representation must be boosted in safe seats, after four successive election drubbings in WA.

“As a party, we have lost our way,” she told ABC Mornings.

“People are just not relating to us and our candidates don’t reflect the nature, the broad nature and the diverse nature of our communities either.

“So there’s a lot of things we’ve got to review and reform because you can’t just blame Labor for your losses.”

Read the full story here.

As the Prime Minister considers how his new Cabinet will look and rumours around positions swirl, Anthony Albanese has given reporters a dressing down.

One reporter asked “There’s been a rumour that Tanya Plibersek could go to the NDIS portfolio. Can you confirm that’s been considered?”

“That’s just nonsense, as you were told yesterday,” the Prime Minister snapped.

“People have got to stop. The only person who knows is me and you were told by my office yesterday that was nonsense.

“I’ve said I respect the caucus and I respect the caucus.

“But I say to all of you, if you hear something, unless it comes out of my mouth, it is nonsense.

“And you know, you were told that yesterday.”

Anthony Albanese has given a candid insight into meetings with the opposition over the years and stated he will contnue to treat everyone with respect throughout the halls of parliament and beyond.

“I have always treated both the Liberal Party and their leader and the National Party and their leader with respect,” Mr Albanese said.

“I haven’t got a record of how many times Peter Dutton went into my office, but it would be in the order certainly of at least 20 to 30 times.

“David Littleproud, double digits as well.

“That’s how I respond, I treat people with respect.

“Like it’s not - it’s not rhetoric, it’s real.

“My job is to govern effectively. I’m proud of course of leading the Labor Party and I make no pretence that I’m anything other than an absolute Labor loyalist.

“I came out of the womb Labor, I will go in the ground Labor when it’s all over.”

“I want a federal EPA that supports industry, but also supports sustainability and I think that can be achieved,” Mr Albanese said when asked about his main focus now he has won another term.

“I think that can be achieved and that’s my objective.”

“We have other agenda, some of it held up on housing. We have an ambitious challenge to build housing. I note both the coalition and the Greens’ housing spokespeople won’t be in the Parliament.

“I think part of the reason why they’re not in the Parliament is they held up public housing, they held up emergency housing for women and children escaping violence.

“They held up our build to rent scheme and they held up our help to buy scheme.

“I say this message to the Senate and members of the House of Representatives - We have a clear mandate to build more housing and the key is supply.

“You know, get out of the way and let the private sector build it. That is going to be one of my priorities.”

Read Nicola Smith’s full story here.

Anthony Albanese said he has been on the phone with US President Donald Trump this morning and was greeted in a very receptive manner after his resounding election win.

“I had a warm and positive conversation with President Donald Trump, just a short while ago when I was at the Lodge,” Mr Albanese said.

“I thanked him for his very warm message of congratulations.

“We talked about how AUKUS and tariffs will continue to engage, we’ll engage with each other on a face-to-face basis at some time in the future.

“But it was very warm and I thank him for reaching out in such a positive way as well.”

“It was a very warm discussion about the friendship between our two nations that’s so important.”

Mr Albanese told reporters that he had multiple conversations with Mr Trump.

“I had three conversations with the president. I won’t go into all of the personal comments that he made.

“But it was very generous in his personal warmth and praise towards myself. He was fully aware of the outcome and he expressed the desire to continue to work with me in the future.”