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

Two senior ministers are expected to lose their positions in a new-look lineup as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warns Labor MPs against focusing too heavily on themselves.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is set to be axed by his Victorian right faction colleagues in favour of 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.

Labor’s ministry and cabinet are carved up between the states and the left and right factions, based on their proportion of seats.

The more progressive left, from which Mr Albanese hails, has edged ahead of the right after the election, with more of its candidates winning seats.

But the ministry quota system has sparked an internal fight between Victorians and their NSW counterparts as the former want an extra seat at the table.

New blood in the ministry will likely include Tim Ayres from NSW and Ged Kearney and Daniel Mulino from Victoria.

Seats by numbers

• Labor - 89 seats (+11 from 2022 election total)
• Coalition - 40 seats (-17)
• Greens - 0 seats (-4)
• Independents/Minor parties - 10 seats (-1)
• Undecided - 11 seats
• Vote count as of Thursday 10am AEST with 80.7 per cent of the national tally counted
• Labor looks set to gain at least three seats in the Senate and the Liberals will go backwards as five seats remain in doubt with 64.8 per cent of the upper house ballots counted

The Premier of WA Roger Cook has announced the Perth Bears will be the 18th team in the NRL from 2027.

Mr Cook is celebrating the new franchise and has given cause for celebration for many long-suffering Bears fans.

“I mentioned before that as part of the agreement, the state will provide $65.6 million in financial support to the new club over seven years for grassroots development, establishment costs and match-day support and tourism marketing,” Mr Cook said.

“For the duration of this seven-year period of state support, the ARLC has agreed to cover the costs associated with running the club as well as guaranteeing that the club will not be charged a licence fee and that every dollar of WA government support will be spent here in WA.

“The club will benefit from a number of community sport infrastructure projects funded separately by the WA government including fast-tracking a new high performance centre to be shared by rugby league and rugby union.

“This is a great outcome for WA. Like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, WA will host AFL and NRL sides and I would back us to compete just as hard in the NRL as we do in the AFL.

“Let’s get behind our new WA NRL side, the Perth Bears. Let’s get behind WA. Everyone get on board. Team WA is marching forward once again.”

In a noticeable shift toward independents and fringe parties the Australian Electoral Commission says the 2025 Federal election has had the most amount of three party preferred counts ever.

Acting electoral commissioner Jeff Pope says this election was “unprecedented” due to the number of close and complicated seats.

Two candidate preferred “resets” involve the electoral commission changing the two candidates it is counting preferences between, because it is clear different candidates will make force their way into final two consideration.

“The election saw the largest number of 3CP counts ever with those counts done between the leading three candidates in seats where it is unclear who will be the final two candidates,” Mr Pope said.

“That count helps determine the top two candidates in each seat and enables us to work out who has won faster.”

Regular moviegoers aren’t the only ones turning to the Oscar-winning film Conclave to learn about the mysterious process of choosing a new pope.

American news site Politico reported real-life cardinals had been watching Conclave ahead of the papal elections in Vatican City.

A cleric told the publication, “Some have watched it in the cinema”.

The film stars Ralph Fiennes as the cardinal in charge of administering the arcane rituals involved in selecting the next head of the church.

Directed by Edward Berger and adapted from a novel by Robert Harris, the fictionalised drama had consulted with those in the know, so there is a degree of accuracy.

The majority of the cardinals taking part in this conclave were not involved in the previous election and, according to that cleric Politico spoke to, have little experience of Vatican politics. Which makes Berger’s film, portraying the intense lobbying and factional games of the process, rather instructive.

With Labor factions meeting in Canberra today ahead of a full caucus meeting tomorrow, chatter is rife about what shape the ministry will take.

The NSW right faction is over-prescribed, prompting questions about whether Jason Clare, Chris Bowen, Tony Burke or Ed Husic need to be demoted to make way for a new Victorian Right position.

Mr Albanese won’t get into the specifics of factional jostling, saying “we have a process, and we’ll work it through”.

He says given Labor has spent much of its 125-year history in Opposition, things are different when they’re in Government.

“No individual is bigger than the collective, and that includes myself”.

“We need to approach this term with humility to make sure that we deliver on the commitments that we made to the Australian people, but also that we operate in a way which shows solidarity.”

He offers some constructive criticism to the Coalition, saying they spent too much time focusing on having “some level of unity, but that was on the basis of not having any policy”.

“When you’re focused inwards, the electorate will mark you down,” he said.

Mr Albanese said he would speak with King Chalres on Thursday afternoon, one of seven phone calls scheduled with global leaders.

He will also speak to leaders of Japan and Thailand, following on from “warm discussions” with US President Donald Trump and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

He also has calls scheduled with the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands and Ursula von der Leyen from the European Union, as Australia tries to stitch together a free trade deal.

Mr Albanese is relishing the almost total wipeout of Greens MPs from the lower house, including leader Adam Bandt and housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather.

Mr Bandt has yet to concede defeat to Labor in Melbourne. Labor has won Brisbane and Griffith, while the counting in Ryan remains too close to call.

He says the Party “lost their way during the last term” in holding up crucial housing legislation and the environmental protection agency.

He said the way the Greens had led protests, including outside his electorate office, had turned off voters.

Taking particular aim at Deputy Leader Mehreen Faruqi, who was involved in that demonstration, he said he found it “incredible that someone who is an elected office holder thought it was appropriate”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken with Sky News, where he credited Labor’s landslide election win to “unity” and the Party’s “sense of purpose”.

“We came into government in 2022 in what were very difficult times, and they became more difficult with the economic turbulence, frankly, that hit the world,” he said.

“We don’t want people to be sacrificed. And the philosophy that I put forward in the lead up to 2022 was very much. No one left behind.”

Asked if Labor has now taken the mantle of the “party of aspiration” from the Liberals, the PM describes his party as one “of opportunity”, making reference to policies on early childhood education, TAFE, and universities.

He says the biggest opportunity is the one the energy transition and climate action present.

“It is a challenge, but it’s an opportunity as well, and it’s one we haven’t shied away from,” he said.

He said Labor’s re-election will provide investors in renewables with certainty.

Ousted Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has responded to Anthony Albanese’s suggestion he should “have a good look” at his own conduct during his time in Parliament, comparing the Prime Minister’s comments towards him to the “kind words” for Peter Dutton.

On 7.30 on Wednesday night, Mr Albanese suggested the outgoing Griffith MP should “use a mirror and a reflection on why he’s no longer in Parliament”, after Mr Chandler-Mather had said he wouldn’t miss the “bloody awful” and “sick place” that is Parliament.

Mr Chandler-Mather took to social media on Thursday morning to say: “I feel like the PM launching into an attack on someone who isn’t even in Parliament, rather than celebrating a historic win proves my point, which is this is how the political class treats ppl (sic) who fight for renters & real change”.

“Compare this to his kind words for Dutton,” he said.

He also shared a screenshot of a newspaper article from May 2023, where it was reported an independent MP and a Coalition MP had made complaints to the Speaker about “vicious” attacks on the first-term MP during a stalemate on housing.