Australian Federal election 2025 recap: Anthony Albanese wins landslide, hails ‘profound opportunity’
Scroll down for to recap the day’s events as they happened.
Key Events
Dutton ‘humble’ after ‘hectic’ campaign
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has spoken from Melbourne for the first time on election day.
“It’s been a hectic five weeks and it’s always a roller coaster ride, but ultimately it’s grand final day and it’s an opportunity to get out and meet more people,” Mr Dutton told Sunrise.
“I’ve just been amazed by the stories and the number of people, just the amazing Australians that we’ve met over the last five weeks, which is really humbling.
“I mean, some people in really difficult circumstances, some people who have got amazing stories to tell and some people who are defending our country, really (it) just makes you feel very humble about being in this job and having the opportunity to meet people who are just really inspiring.”
‘You should never give up’, says Dutton on election day
Peter Dutton has stopped for a tea and to fuel up his election day morning south of Melbourne.
At cafe Carter Lovett in Elsterwick, he joined Liberal Macnamara candidate Benson Saulo and supporters to talk about the campaign and wish him well at the ballot box.
Asked by a journalist at the stop if the Opposition Leader thought he could win, Mr Dutton responded: “I think you should never give in.”
“Absolutely, I do”.
Where is Anthony Albanese of election day?
Anthony Albanese is starting his day at the MCG for a slate of breakfast television interviews as the first fingers of dawn creep above the iconic stands.
The Prime Minister is fond of explaining his political strategy as seeking to kick with the wind in the fourth quarter.
He’s expected to greet voters in a Melbourne seat later on this morning.
At some point, Mr Albanese will head to his hometown of Sydney to vote.
How to win the Federal election
Need a bit of a refresh on how Federal election day works? Well, here is what you need to know.
- A political party needs 76 seats in the House of Representatives to form a majority government
- A net loss of just three seats will leave Labor needing to negotiate with the crossbench to form a minority government
- The coalition requires a net gain of 19 seats to govern in its own right, or a uniform swing of about 5.3 per cent
- If neither party makes it to the requisite 76 seats, whichever has the most would enter into negotiations with the crossbench first
- Published polls suggest Labor is most likely to win government but could fall short of a majority, while the coalition claims its internal data paints a vastly different picture
- A minority parliament would be the first since 2010 and only the third since 1943
Where is Peter Dutton on election day?
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will start his election day campaign in Melbourne this morning.
It comes after Mr Dutton campaigned in four Perth electorates and one Adelaide seat on Friday.
The Liberal leader is expected to travel to Brisbane later today where he will likely campaign in his own marginal Queensland electorate of Dickson and where he will hold his election night event.
Mr Dutton on Friday said he was still confident he could win despite poor polling, calling on the “quiet Australians” who delivered Scott Morrison to victory in 2019 to vote out a “bad Labor government”.
The one Aussie state that could hold the keys to the entire election
Victoria will likely hold the key to Labor and Liberal fortunes on election night.
The Liberals are desperate to make up ground on Saturday in the state once dubbed the “Massachusetts of Australia” by John Howard because of its progressive leanings.
The coalition holds just 10 seats in Victoria after voters in the Melbourne seats of Kooyong, Goldstein, Chisholm and now-abolished Higgins turned on the Morrison government in 2022.
Aston then fell in a once-in-a-century by-election loss to Labor following the resignation of former frontbencher Alan Tudge.
Political scientist Zareh Ghazarian said at least a dozen seats across the state were held by five per cent or less following boundary changes.
“This is a real battleground state this time around,” the Monash University political lecturer told AAP.
Dr Ghazarian reckons the Liberals must reclaim Kooyong, Goldstein, Chisholm and Aston to restore their previous base, while picking up at least one outer suburban seat like McEwen.
Final poll shows Labor on track for Federal election win
Labor is on track for victory on Saturday but is unlikely to get the majority government Anthony Albanese is still aiming for.
The final Newspoll ahead of polling day showed Labor with 52.5 per cent of the two-party preferred to the Coalition’s 47.5 per cent. Labor won the May 2022 election with a single-seat majority on a two-party preferred vote of 52.1 per cent.
Labor’s primary was at 33 per cent — just above what the party achieved in the 2022 poll — while the Coalition’s was lower than the last election on 34 per cent.
If repeated at Saturday’s poll, it would represent a 1.7 point decline from the 35.7 per cent recorded in May 2022 and a record low for the Coalition.
The poll also showed the combined primary vote of the major parties has also fallen to a new low of 67 per cent, compared to 68.3 per cent at the last election.
Both Mr Albanese and Peter Dutton suffered declines in personal support in the final week of the campaign. The Opposition Leader’s approval rating slid a further three points to 32 per cent, with a negative rating of minus 28.
The popularity of Mr Albanese, meanwhile, fell by one point to a record a net negative approval rating of minus 10.
However, Mr Albanese still leads Mr Dutton 51-35 per cent as the preferred prime minister.
