Labor has stormed to victory in the federal election and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will lead a majority government following a disastrous night for the Coalition and Peter Dutton.
At 8.24pm, less than half an hour after the final polls closed in Western Australia, 9News projected Labor had won the election.
This isnt just a win for Labor, this is a historic landslide after the already historic landslide in 2022. The Liberals could hold as few as 40/150 seats in the house after today, and Labor as many as 90. This could be their greatest victory since the Second World War, and the Liberals (who, to clarify, are conservative) smallest representation since their formation. There was something like a 5% swing away from the Liberals. Likewise, this result appears to have elected the most independents to parliament in decades.
Lets point out that its not even the liberals, its a liberal national coalition. The liberal primary vote is in third party territory. Even if you add the libs and nats they have about half the seats of labor. This ass kicking is historical.
The Coalition has been a stable political entity for generations, and is structurally more like a party with two formalised factions and centres of power than like two parties temporarily cooperating. (In Queensland, they have even merged into one party.)