Australian election news and updates recap May 8: Price may run as Taylor’s deputy in Liberal leadership tilt

In an opinion piece on the Liberal’s dismal performance in the Federal election, Mark Riley questions what went so horribly wrong.

“In the post-apocalyptic gloom of Sunday morning, a bunch of current and former Liberal advisers shared their views over WhatsApp on the enormity of what had just happened,” he writes.

“What they surveyed in political terms was nothing short of a bleak dystopian hellscape.”

One Liberal staffer offered a confronting answer, says Riley.

“He invited the group to remember what they had all thought when Peter Dutton was appointed leader after the 2022 election loss,” he wrote.

The advisor went on to say: “We thought he was un-electable”.

But Riley says the Liberals buried that concern beneath the false hope offered by the party’s internal polling.

Read the full opinion piece here.

Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has defected to the Liberal Party, saying she’s “eager to fight for the best interests of all Australians as part of the Coalition”.

As a Country Liberal Party senator, Price is allowed to choose which party room to sit in when in Canberra.

Price said she believed she could make a greater contribution to the Coalition by leaving the Nationals, making it clear she wants to be a big part of the Libs’ rebuild.

“I believe I will be more effective in this regard if I am a member of the Liberal Party, especially as the party faces a significant rebuild after Saturday,” she said.

“A rebuild I feel obliged to play a robust part in.

“I want to bring back our core values of liberty, individual freedom and responsibility, the rule of law, free market and economic prosperity, minimal government intervention, a fair go and most of all, love for our nation, Australia.”

Between 2022 and 2025, she was a member of the Nationals.

Read more ​here​.

Mr Bandt has become emotional as he thanked his wife Claudia Perkins, a former Labor advisor, who he said has made the country better.

“Claudia ... I am lucky enough to be married to one of the most beautiful political minds that I’ve known and someone who has an amazing history of activism and insight and love and warmth and compassion,” he said.

He also thanked his two children, and his staff for their support.

Speaking directly to the media, the ousted Greens leader says “we are in a climate crisis” and the fourth estate needs to take it seriously.

“Treat the climate crisis as if there is a war on,” he said.

“The climate crisis is only going to get worse unless we tackle it. And this movement of ours that I am so incredibly proud to have been a part of is only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger as we make sure that everyone is beautiful country and this beautiful planet of ours has a safe place to live and everything they need to live a good life.”

The Greens leader has urged his supporters disappointed in his loss to put their hope in the movement, rather than himself.

“I’m really sorry that I will not be able to represent you anymore,” he said.

“I was so lucky to meet so many of you during the course of this campaign, and one of the things many of you said to me was that we gave you hope.

“I want you to know that the hope is not hope in me, like hope in all of us, the hope is in our movement, you are not alone.

“There are millions of you. There are millions of people who want a safe future and who think that in this wealthy country of ours, everyone should be able to get a roof over their head and not have to go into debt to get an education, to not have to skip meals to pay the rent or avoid going to the doctor or the dentist because they can’t afford it.

“Our movement has a big future. It is a movement with a lot of heart, and we are going to keep growing.”

He also thanked everyone who “had the courage to speak up against the invasion of Gaza, and spoke out for peace in Palestine”.

“This is a massive moment for humanutiy, and we have been really proud, and I have been proud to continue to push for a just and lasting peace,” he said.

He goes on to thank the entire “amazing Greens organisation movement”.

He said some Green votes had “leaked away as people saw Labor as the best option to stop Dutton”.

“I spent a fair bit of time on polling booths in Melbourne, had quite a few conversations where people told me that they usually vote Green, but this time they didn’t, because of Peter Dutton,” he said.

“Hats off to the Prime Minister and Labor, the Labor campaign on this point for making of such a central feature of the campaign. Have to acknowledge they did run a very good campaign.”

“They linked Trump to Peter Dutton and made it clear...that Dutton was about trying to bring the Trump of politics to Australia and I think it became one of the key defining features of the election that drove a big part of the 5-week riptide we spoke about.”

Mr Bandt is talking about “purple seats” across the country, where you “mix red and blue together and you get purple”.

“If the Government does not use its big majority to start actually tackling climate and inequality, watch for a big swing at the next election and see those (purple) seats go Green,” he siad.

“One of those purple Green seats is not Melbourne, unfortunately.”

He said a redistributon had made the seat more marginal by shifting “high voting Greens areas” out of the electorate.

Mr Bandt is speaking to the media now. He said he had spoken to Ms Witty a short time ago and wished her “all the best” as the next Melbourne MP.

He said while the Greens got the highest vote in Melbourne, One Nation and Liberal preferences had pushed Labor over the line.

“To win in Melbourne we needed to overcome Liberal, Labor and One Nation combined. It is an Everest we have climbed a few times now, but this time we fell short,” he said.

He thanked voters who had backed him for the past 15 years, saying they had allowed him to do “some amazing things together”.

He said fighting the climate crisis is why he got into politics, and he wished to thank his constituents for “helping us making a difference”.

Mr Bandt went on to praise his party room colleagues, calling them “some of the brightest, most dedicated people I have ever met. I have learnt so much from them”.

“Together we have achieved so much, and I am sure they are going to achieve so much more,” he said.

“I am really proud of what I achieved as leader of the Greens. We have achieved the highest vote in Greens history. I leave with the vote for the Greens higher than when I started and with more representation thanever in Parliament.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt has conceded the seat of Melbourne to Labor’s Sarah Witty.

He was the first Greens MP elected to the Lower House in 2010, and has been leader of the minor party since 2020.

He is about to address the media in Melbourne.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has been sensationally dumped from Labor’s frontbench, a casualty of fierce factional in-fighting.

The Victorian Right had a tense meeting on Thursday afternoon, where a source has confirmed it was ultimately decided Mr Dreyfus’ ministry position would be filled by second-term Hawke MP Sam Rae - a key ally of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles.

Industry Minister Ed Husic is also on the chopping block to rebalance the ledger between Victoria and NSW.

A source said the NSW-Victoria right issue was very much still at play.

Labor’s caucus had gathered in Canberra on Thursday as factional heavyweights carved-up the frontbench positions in Labor’s second ministry.

The Prime Minister will be presented with 30 names, and it is then up to him to decide on positions.