Australian Federal election 2025 live: Ley reveals next steps for Libs after Dutton’s election bloodbath

As the fallout continues from Peter Dutton’s disastrous loss at the Federal Election, a Liberal Senator has suggested the party needs to “make the Liberal Party great again”.

Speaking on Rowan Dean’s The Outsiders on Sky News, the Liberal’s Alex Antic was asked what when wrong and where to from here for the party.

“What we have to do is make sure that we make the Liberal Party great again,” the South Australian Senator said.

“I said it, there we go. We can make Australia great again by the way. And no one should have any backlash about that”.

The apparent reference of Donald Trump’s signature Make America Great Again slogan comes after many critics have blamed part of Mr Dutton’s diabolical loss to embracing a Trump-like tone pre-campaign.

In the second week of the election campaign, the Coalition attempted to downplay a similar MAGA-like comment made by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price at an election rally in the Perth seat of Tangney.

The Liberal candidate for Curtin, Tom White, has conceded victory to sitting teal independent Kate Chaney.

Mr White refused to concede on election night, claiming the seat was too close to call, but on Sunday morning took to Instagram to step aside for Ms Chaney.

“I have just called Kate Chaney to concede the election in Curtin and to congratulate her on a well-deserved victory,” he wrote

“Kate and I have many differences but this is not the time to dwell on them.

“She has been an impressive and formidable opponent. I admire her team and the sincerity they have brought to the campaign, even when we’ve disagreed strongly.

“Defeat stings but it’s much less painful than the permanent, dull ache of wondering what might have been had I never tried.

“I have no regrets.”

Read the full story here.

Asked about his own leadership ambitions, Mr Chalmers said he would be happy to stay on as Treasurer.

“I can’t think of a campaign where a Prime Minister has campaigned more effectively than Anthony Albanese over the course of the last five weeks.”

“I think he is the biggest explanation for why we turned around the trouble that we were in at the end of 2024 to the position that we won last night.

“It was an extraordinary campaign, and I think he deserves to be very proud. My expectation and my hope is that he serves a full term and runs again.

He continued: “I’m personally incredibly proud of him. I rang him during the day yesterday and told him how proud I was of him, and he deserves the lion’s share of the credit for what happened last night.”

Mr Chalmers said Labor’s first term was focused on bringing down inflation, that would now shift to boosting productivity.

“The best way to think about the difference between our first term and the second term that we won last night, first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity, the second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation,” he said

He went on: “Human capital, competition policy, technology, energy, the care economy, these are where we’re going to find the productivity gains, and not quickly, but over the medium term.”

He said a national regime for occupational licensing, changes to non-compete clauses and reviving national competition policy were all on the agenda.

Mr Chalmers said US imposed tariffs on Australia were manageable, there was a huge downside for the global economy from the tariff war.

“I think what’s happening, particularly between the US and China does cast a dark shadow over the global economy.

“We’re not uniquely impacted by that, but we’re really well placed. We are quite well prepared because of the progress that Australians made over the course of the last three years.

“So we go into that with a sense of, we’re realistic about how this could play out in the world, but we are optimistic about Australia’s place in it.”

He continued: “Global economic uncertainty really is the big influence on my thinking and my work on day one of a second term and we need to have the ability, and we will have the ability, to manage that uncertainty at the same time as we roll out our domestic agenda, Future Made in Australia, housing, energy, technology, human capital, competition policy.”

Mr Chalmer’s said the Albanese Labor government was ambitious and had a “big agenda” for it’s second term.

“We’re looking forward to implementing it with confidence, with the confidence that comes from a big majority.”

Mr Chalmers said the Budget - projected to have deficits for the next four years under Labbor election plans totalling around $150b - would warrant ongoing attention.

He said he was already back at work and had had a briefing from the Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy at 6.45am, on the markets and what that means for the Australian economy.

“I think one of the reasons why we got this big majority last night is because people recognise that if you wanted stability while the global economy was going crazy, then a majority Labor government was the best way to deliver that,” he said

He singled out building more homes, energy transformation, embracing technology - particularly AI.

“There’s a huge agenda there for us and what our agenda boils down to is obviously weathering and withstanding this global economic uncertainty in the near term.

“But also making sure that we make the Australian people the primary beneficiaries of all of this churn and change that we’re seeing in the world, so we’ve got a big agenda there and I’m really looking forward to rolling it out.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says last night’s huge election win is still sinking in.

Speaking earlier on ABC’s Insiders, Mr Chalmers said the win was “beyond even our most optimistic expectations.

“It was a history making night.”

The victory comes, though, with “healthy healthy helpings of humility as well,” Mr Chalmers said.

“We know that there are a lot of challenges to address in our economy and more broadly we know that people are under pressure.”

“We know the global environment is uncertain, and we know that this second term has been given to us by the Australian people because they want stability in uncertain times.

“Not because they think we’ve solved every challenge in our economy or in our society more broadly, but because we’re better placed to work towards solving some of those challenges.

“So there is an element of humility and there’s a lot of gratitude to the Australian people.”

Exiting the Bar Italia cafe, Anthony Albanese was met by local record store owner Joshua Gibbs who gave him a mono original Australian pressing of the classic album Easy by the Easybeats.

Mr Gibbs said he was headed to work when he saw the media pack and decided to rustle through his stock for an appropriate album to mark the PM’s election victory.

He’s met Mr Albanese before, with the noted music fan dropping into the record store previously to add to his vinyl collection.

Mr Gibbs described the election result as “stunning” and “one of the craziest” he had seen.

Read the full story here.

Anthony Albanese said he’d had a “very warm” conversation with Peter Dutton last night when the opposition leader rang to concede.

“I feel for Peter Dutton. He was generous in his comments,” he said.

“I wish him and Kirilly and his family all the best. It’s a tough business politics, there’s no doubt about that, and it would have been a tough night for Peter, but he was generous.”

He said Mr Dutton had been very kind in mentioning the Prime Minister’s mother and family during that conversation and in his concession speech.

“I used to visit this coffee shop with my mum, I grew up just down the road here, and I did certainly think of her last night as well,” Mr Albanese said.

“She would be very proud, but I’m very proud. of the Labor team that I lead.”

He was joined by Finance Minister and confidante Katy Gallagher and Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale, who has increased his margin despite his seat becoming notionally Liberal after the boundaries were redrawn.

“He just put his head down, did the work and didn’t complain about that bit of a rough deal when you win a seat and then it gets turned back the other way,” Mr Albanese said of his caucus colleague.

“That’s the sort of discipline that our team showed.

“We will be a disciplined, orderly government in our second term, just like we have been in our first.

“We’ve been given the great honour of serving the Australian people. And we don’t take it for granted and we’ll work hard each and every day.”

Anthony Albanese is celebrating his stunning victory over a coffee with old friends and supporters at a Leichhardt cafe he used to visit with his mother.

He said he was feeling very positive but not getting carried away with things and will head back to Canberra to get to work shortly.

“I was always pretty, pretty positive about an outcome, and I knew that we had a positive agenda … and I think that the other side had a plan for higher taxes, higher deficits for two years and just cuts,” he said.

“The Australian people voted for unity rather than division.”

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape phoned him before 8pm on Saturday night, though Mr Albanese said he’d told his friend it was too early.

He’s also had a long chat with New Zealand leader Christopher Luxon and fielded messages from Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.

Later today he will speak with Volodymyr Zekensky and Prabowo Subianto.