Liberal senator says Coalition ‘sent the troops into battle without ammunition’
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The rightwing SA Liberal senator Alex Antic has ripped into the Coalition’s campaign in an interview on Sky News.
Antic said:
It think it simply didn’t have policy that resonated.
Many of the policies were, in my mind, reminiscent of a mobile phone contract – you know, for the first 12 months, you’ll get something free.
I mean, in many cases, I feel very sorry for some of our excellent candidates, particularly here in South Australia, who’ve done a power of work trying to get real people back into politics.
But unfortunately, we’ve sent the troops into battle without ammunition.
Asked about the future direction of the party, Antic said the Liberal branch in SA – of which he exerts enormous influence – was a template for a nationwide revival.
He said the party must “make the Liberal party great again”, echoing Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
Key events
Josh Butler
Liberal party had ‘no vision for housing’, Laxale says
Re-elected Labor MP Jerome Laxale had one answer when asked what mattered most to his constituents in Bennelong:
Peter Dutton.
Laxale, the first term MP, has been returned to Bennelong with what looks like a thumping majority around 60-40. His ultra marginal seat turned notionally Liberal after a boundary redistribution, but Laxale – praised by several Labor people in the last 18 hours as one of their strongest and best campaigners – has turned the seat, formerly held by John Howard, safely Labor.
He joined PM Albanese for a coffee this morning in Leichhardt. That Laxale was with Albanese in his first appearance after election night shows how big Labor thinks this result is.
Asked for his election analysis on the way out of the cafe, Laxale pointed to Liberal “flip flops” on policies like nuclear, work from home and cost of living as major negatives for Dutton’s campaign.
They had no vision for housing. This is what cost the Liberals in Bennelong, and we had the opposites. We had plans, we worked hard, we had conversations, and we didn’t try and buy the seat.
Asked by a reporter what mattered most to his voters, Laxale simply said “Peter Dutton”.
We went to the election with the delivery of the last three years, but there’s also more to do. We acknowledge that there’s more to do on cost of living, housing, and I think people backed us.
Victoria confounds Liberal hopes of election revival, swinging even further to Labor
Fears of a Labor bloodbath in Victoria in the federal election were utterly confounded, with the Liberals recording a statewide swing against them and the party all but certain to lose several seats.
Late on Saturday night, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, Labor had won 23 of the state’s 38 seats while the Coalition was at six – three held by the Nationals and three by the Liberals. Independents had three, with six still in doubt. The Liberals had seen a swing of nearly 2% away from them.
The Liberals had campaigned hard in the state, running advertising tying Anthony Albanese to the long-serving and poor-polling state Labor government, led by Jacinta Allan, in the hope of clawing back outer suburban seats such as Aston, Chisholm, Dunkley and McEwen, and gaining seats such as Bruce, Hawke and Gorton.
Even senior members of Victorian Labor expected a swing away from the party of about 1.5%-2.5% – with some members of the state caucus actively considering a leadership challenge against Allan if several seats were lost.
But instead, there was a swing of about 1.8% towards the party, on top of the 54.8% two-party-preferred result in 2022, itself a high-water mark.
Labor was expected to hold Chisholm, Dunkley and Aston, as well as winning the seats of Deakin and Menzies from the Liberals.
In Deakin, one of the most marginal seats going into the election, Labor’s Matt Gregg was expected to defeat the Coalition housing spokesperson, Michael Sukkar, while in Menzies, Labor’s Gabriel Ng was on track to take the seat from the Liberal MP Keith Wolahan.
For more, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Benita Kolovos and Henry Below:
Benita Kolovos
Allan was about the federal seat of Bendigo – her hometown – which has bucked the state trend and recorded a 10.5% swing away from Labor MP Lisa Chesters.
The premier denies the swing is a reflection on her association with the seat and instead credits a “cashed-up campaign” by the Nationals. Allan said:
The results in Bendigo are still too close to call. When you look at the campaign that Lisa Chesters has ran, which was focused on working people and families. Whereas the National party well, they ran a massively cashed up campaign, run from outside of Bendigo, importing people in from Queensland and they did everything they could to distance themselves from Peter Dutton and the Liberal party … and indeed, the Liberal party came fourth in Bendigo.
Allan says federal Labor had adopted many Victorian policies, including investing in healthcare and free Tafe and kinder:
Our focus on women’s health was something that’s been picked up by federal Labor and has been expanded across the nation, delivering free Tafe – that started here in Victoria – that’s been taken nationwide.
She said:
The results yesterday, they’re not despite what’s going on here in Victoria. They’re because of what’s going on here in Victoria.
Victorian premier lauds Albanese’s ‘emphatic’ win
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, held a press conference at the Northern hospital in Epping, in Melbourne’s north earlier this morning to mark the beginning of an $813m redevelopment of its emergency department.
She began by congratulating the prime minister Anthony Albanese on what she said was a “historic and emphatic” election win:
What we saw with yesterday’s results, Australians and Victorians … said no to Peter Dutton and the Liberals’ cuts. They said yes to … being able to make sure you could get in and see a GP, investments in healthcare, like what we’re marking here today at the Northern hospital, they most clearly said no to those nuclear plans and instead said yes to cheaper renewable energy.
In Victoria, there has been a swing of about 1.8% towards Labor, on top of the 54.8% two-party-preferred result in 2022, itself a high-water mark. This was despite fears – within the party – that Allan’s unpopularity would drag the vote down.
She said the result showed Victorians backed the government’s plans to build more homes, the long-awaited train line to Melbourne airport and the Suburban Rail Loop. Labor held Aston and won Deakin and Menzies – three seats that pass through the line in the eastern suburbs.
Allan said:
Victorians and Australians said an emphatic no to those blockers and said yes to building more homes, building the airport rail, building the suburban rail loop, and that also is a big yes to supporting the rights of workers, and protecting those workers, which we know are always under threat from a Liberal government.
Socialists aim for national expansion after positive result
The Australian Socialists are “absolutely” thinking of expanding nationally after a decent showing in the seats they ran in, Jordan van den Lamb says.
Lamb, known popularly by his social media handle, Purple Pingers, is a renters rights campaigner who ran for the Senate at the 2025 federal election.
The party edged close to double digits in parts of Victoria and picked up a share of votes in the Senate.
Speaking to 6 News Australia, Lamb said the minor party, started seven years ago, is “absolutely” thinking about whether it can expand beyond Victoria.
We have no way near hit our ceiling just yet, we’ve only got room to grow and we’ll continue to grow.
Josh Butler
Albanese laps up his victory in Leichhardt
After finishing up a coffee with his supporters in Leichhardt, PM Albanese has ducked into the front bar of the cafe and started scooping some gelato.
Doling out a few cones and cups of the sweet treat, Albanese jokes “every Italian knows how to do this”. (or at least that’s vaguely what it sounded like, the bustling cafe is packed with patrons craning their necks for a look.)
He tells one punter that last night’s election result was “humbling”. Albanese then jokes that they “scooped up more than a few” seats.
He bids the onlookers goodbye with a “ciao”.
Major parties taking voters for granted, Yee says
Independent Stella Yee, who didn’t make it across the line, tells the ABC that the major parties have been taking voters for granted “for a long time”.
Yee says Labor’s response to the siege on Gaza has played a role in her decision to run as an independent, along with its continued efforts to open more gas fields and coal mines.
It is the same old same old that have letters to this point. People have voted number one for me, sending a message that the two parties are just not good enough. A lot of our systems like sending gas for free and not charging multinationals tax and all of that, those are not correct settings for us. So we are sending this message.
Pockock wants housing treated as ‘fundamental human right’
Australians want housing treated as a human right, not an investment vehicle or wealth creation tool, Pocock says.
Do we want, going forward, housing to continue to be an investment vehicle, a wealth creation tool or are we going to start to turn the ship around and say no, this is a fundamental human right, something that everyone in our community should be able to access and afford?
I’m hearing from Canberrans that they wanted to be more of the human right than an investment vehicle.
Pocock says “neither major party” has been talking about structural reform and the need to deal with negative gearing and capital gains tax discount.
I will continue to push for really sensible solutions because if you talk to experts, you actually have to tackle the root causes of these challenges. You can’t just keep tinkering as things get worse and worse and worse, and try to sell that to the electorate as a way to get re-elected.
Pocock calls for big reforms: ‘People are sick of tinkering’
The balance of power is not necessary to make an impact for your community, Senator David Pocock says, and parliament has to do better “when it comes to overarching issues”.
From housing to health, climate, cost of living – people are sick of tinkering. My hope is that the Labor government after a huge victory will actually use that to change our country and the future of our nation for the better.
The senator said he wanted the NACC strengthened, gambling banned and lobbying reforms passed.
You have to hit the ground running as a territory senator. Those of the big things I have been hearing from Canberrans about, and it will be no surprise. Across the country, people are grappling with the growing intergenerational inequality.
The senator nominated housing as a critical issue, saying “our housing system is not working for us” but that the issue goes beyond housing to “the future of our country.
Pocock ‘very humbled’ after very strong Senate result
The independent senator David Pocock is speaking to the ABC where he says he is “very tired but really humbled” after a massive 20.85% swing to him in the ACT.
I think we have seen across the country community backed independents doing well. More Australians seeing what our politics can be. A constructive politics that is connected to the community.
My commitment to the last election was to be accessible and accountable to the people of the ACT and to work every day for them and to ultimately vote on their behalf. That is not my vote in the Senate. It belongs to people in the ACT. Something I take very seriously.
And my hope is that we will continue to see that grow, people see the benefit of people going to parliament and engage with good faith on ideas issues regardless of who puts those issues into the parliament.
