Anthony Albanese wins Australian Federal election in landslide victory, making history in process

Anthony Albanese has made history as the first prime minister in 21 years to clinch consecutive polls, storming home with a comfortable majority win in Saturday’s Federal election.

The Liberal-National Coalition was thrashed by voters in one of its most devastating defeats in generations, facing its lowest-ever primary vote.

In one of the most shocking twists of the night, the Opposition was left in disarray after leader Peter Dutton lost his seat to Labor’s Ali France in the outer Brisbane electorate of Dickson.

The catastrophic loss of a party leader was the first since 2007, when John Howard was ousted from his Sydney electorate, and it drew immediate parallels with Canada’s conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, who faced a drubbing in the polls in an anti-Trump backlash.

Labor’s ecstatic election night party erupted in cheers and chants of “Albo!” as Australia’s 32nd Prime Minister took to the stage at the inner west Sydney venue and declared the result “the greatest honour of my life”.

“It is with a deep sense of humility and a profound sense of responsibility that the first thing that I do tonight is to say thank you to the people of Australia,” an impassioned Mr Albanese said.

“Today the Australian people have voted for Australian values.

“For fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all.

“For the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need.

“Australians voted for a future that holds truth to these values, a future built on everything that brings us together as Australians and everything that sets our nation apart from the world.”

The fired-up leader pledged to return on Sunday to the nation’s service during a speech that ran for some 20 minutes as he thanked his family, frontbench and the team who helped to re-elect him with a thumping victory.

We dedicate ourselves “to the great responsibility and the opportunity of government and with pride and purpose, optimism and determination, with faith in the fair go and faith in each other, We return to the work of building Australia’s future,” he said.

The night had begun in nervous anticipation over the closely run race but excitement began to build as preliminary swings emerged against the Coalition in key battleground and safe seats in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and South Australia.

As the election was called at around 8.30pm for Mr Albanese, a sea of supporters in red “Team Albo” T-shirts began hugging, laughing and waving banners in the air.

The buzz in the room contrasted sharply with the sombre atmosphere of the Coalition’s venue in Brisbane, amid rife disbelief as poll after poll showed a tightly run competition.

But early results made it clear that the Coalition had virtually no chance of getting the swings it needed to put it on the path to power.

Surrounded by his wife Kirrily and three adult children, an emotional Mr Dutton apologised and took “full responsibility” for what commentators were calling a “bloodbath.”

“It’s been a great honour to be leader of this amazing party for these past three years. There are good members, good candidates who have lost their seats and their ambitions. I’m sorry for that. We have an amazing party. It will rebuild,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers was one of the first to react, attributing Labor’s win to a campaign centred on the cost-of-living and the Prime Minister’s leadership.

“Second is that we won the argument over the economy ... I think those two things are responsible for this outcome tonight,” he said.

The Prime Minister watched the results roll in from Kirribilli House with his partner Jodie Haydon and son Nathan.

As he entered the room, he was jubilant, with little sign of fatigue after more than 90 public engagements across 52 seats over the 5-week campaign.

Ahead of the May 3 poll, Mr Albanese repeatedly said Labor had “a mountain to climb” while Peter Dutton cast the Coalition as the underdog.

Saturday’s election was a multifaceted race that branched out far beyond a straight contest of Labor versus Coalition, with both main parties fighting an uphill struggle to fend off threats from minor parties and independents.

Labor, tussling for left-leaning voters with the Greens, frequently focussed its battle on the minor party’s strongholds in Brisbane, while the Coalition took aim at the independent teals’ raid on its moderate and wealthy backers in Melbourne and Sydney.

Labor had to hold on to the 78 seats it had, while the Coalition had a much tougher challenge of adding 19 to its 57. To do so, it had to make gains in the middle and outer suburbs of major cities.

By 10.45pm, there was a projected an 86 seat-landslide for Labor, with the Liberals and National Party trailing behind on 40.

In the end, the majority of voters listened to Mr Albanese’s plea to give Labor a second term to deliver on its $8.5billion pledge to boost Medicare bulk-billing, free TAFE, better childcare and a small tax cut that would benefit the average earner by about $10 a week by July 2027.

The Prime Minister argued voters should trust his Government for more affordable housing, to protect the NDIS and urgent care clinics, and cost-of-living relief like a $150 rebate on power bills in the second half of the year.

Despite the nation facing more than $1 trillion in debt, Mr Albanese and Mr Chalmers took credit for responsible economic management that lowered inflation, increased wages and kept unemployment low to help see the country through uncertain global times.

Despite the economy being viewed as a Coalition strength, the Opposition’s pledge to improve the budget bottom line, but only in the second half of their term, mainly through a planned $17.2b public service cut, a $3.6b vaping tax, appeared not to land.

The Coalition may have lost ground in its strategy to announce its full costings on Thursday afternoon, when about one fifth of the electorate had already voted in pre-polls or by post.

Mr Dutton successfully rammed home a promise to immediately slash fuel excise by 25 cents a litre for 12 months and a one-off tax cut of up to $1200 for more than ten million taxpayers in the upcoming financial year.

But from the outset of the five-week campaign, the Coalition could not reclaim the lead it had enjoyed late last year when bookies were also widely tipping Mr Dutton for a win.

The tide began to turn even before the official starting gun was fired when the government’s effective handling of an erratic cyclone boosted its credentials and an interest rate cut worked in Labor’s favour.

Unease over an unpredictable White House and shock over its showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy allowed Mr Dutton’s opponents to accuse him of toxic Trump-like qualities, even as he sought to distance himself.

Meanwhile, a U-turn over a deeply unpopular demand to end working from home for all public servants was widely viewed as an own goal.

Coalition Senator James Paterson conceded Donald Trump’s election had been a “significant” factor in this election, but said despite a “few missteps” the campaign was professional.

The majority result was not foreseen in a series of polls that consistently showed Labor to have the edge over the Coalition, although no guarantee of majority government.

The final Newspoll, on the eve of the election, showed the combined primary vote of the major parties had fallen to a record low, with both leaders suffering deeply negative approval ratings and declines in personal support in the final week of the campaign.

The survey conducted for The Australian showed Labor ahead of the Coalition with a two party preferred lead of 52.5-47.5 per cent and a majority of voters believing they would be better off personally over the next three years with the incumbent.

A defining factor of the election has been high numbers of undecided voters deepening the impact of the preferential system and making the result more volatile.

Outside the Leichhardt Town Hall polling booth in Mr Albanese’s own seat of Grayndler, local people said they had been disheartened by the offers of the two major parties to the nation’s most pressing problems, with housing and the climate crisis high on the list.

Tracey and Ninad, a young couple who voted with their toddler, said childcare and high property prices were their top concerns.

Ninad added that he was “not a fan” of either of the main party’s housing plans. “Neither is really addressing the underlying issues,” he said.

His observation reflected warnings from the country’s most respected economists who criticised a bidding war for budding and first-time homeowners they said risked raising house prices that future generations would pay for.

A few kilometres away, the Prime Minster voted the Marrickville West booth in the early afternoon, fiancee Jodie and son Nathan by his side and his beloved dog Toto in tow.

“It’s my local booth, if we don’t win this booth we’re in real trouble,” he quipped.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton voted at the Albany Creek State High School in his Dickson seat in Queensland with his wife, Kirilly, and three adult children, before settling in with inner circle to wait “anxiously for the numbers to roll in.”

As he left the polling station he said he was “confident that Australians have seen through a bad government and confident that Australians cannot afford three more years of what we have experienced,” he said.

“There are a lot of families who are doing it tough at the moment.”

But in the end, the “quiet Australians” of the outer suburbs and regions, whose votes the Coalition pursued in a strategy focussed on the struggling mortgage-belts of major cities, turned instead to Mr Albanese, putting him back into the Lodge