Prime Minister Anthony Albanese celebrates his second term election win, with son Nathan and fiancée Jodie Haydon. Photo: Anthony Albanese Facebook.
Anthony Albanese has made history by being the first Prime Minister to win back-to-back elections in more than 20 years, returning Labor to office for a second term with a landslide win over the Coalition.
Labor was declared victorious in the federal election before 8:30 pm Saturday when the ABC’s Antony Green called it for the incumbent government.
While gatherings of the ALP’s true believers around the nation roared with delight, it was a far sombre sentiment for the Coalition with news that Peter Dutton not only lost them the election but was turfed out of his own seat of Dickson in Queensland.
Australians have roundly rejected the Coalition’s lurch to the right under Mr Dutton’s leadership.
At the time of publication (3 May, 11:15 pm), the ALP had 56.1 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote and had secured 86 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, with the Coalition on 40, but with counting continuing.
The outgoing Opposition Leader appeared at the Liberal Party’s Brisbane headquarters at about 9:30 pm and delivered a graceful speech, saying he had called Mr Albanese to concede defeat and congratulate him on winning the election.
“We didn’t do well enough during this campaign,” Mr Dutton told the crowd.
“That much is obvious tonight, and I accept full responsibility.”
He had also called Labor’s Ali France who took his seat.
“She will do a good job as a local member for Dickson, and I wish her all the very best,” he said.
Moments later, the re-elected Prime Minister emerged at Labor Party headquarters in Sydney to claim victory and declare being PM to be the greatest honour of his life.
“It is with a deep sense of humility and a profound sense of responsibility that the first thing that I do tonight is to say thank you to the people of Australia,” Mr Albanese said.
“No matter who you voted for, no matter where you live, no matter how you worship or who you love, whether you belong to a culture that has known and cared for this great continent for 65,000 years or you have chosen our nation as your home and enriched our society with your contribution, we are all Australians.
“So let all of us work together to build our national unity on the enduring foundations of fairness, equality and respect for one another … We have everything we need to seize this moment and make it our own but we must do it together, all of us, because for Australia to realise our full potential, for our nation to be the very best, every Australian must have the opportunity to be their best, to serve our Australian values.”
The Liberal’s John Howard was the last Prime Minister to win consecutive elections after serving a full term. That was way back in 2004, and when he lost the subsequent 2007 election to Labor’s Kevin Rudd, the Lodge has since had a revolving door on both sides of politics.
Mr Dutton now joins Mr Howard in being a Liberal Party leader to have lost their own seat in a federal election.
The five-week campaign, which saw the highest-ever rate of pre-poll voting, was marked by an overly negative campaign from the Coalition hanging too much of its hopes on the rest of the nation joining it in bashing Canberra and the public service.
Mr Dutton started the campaign with a backflip over forcing workers back to the office full-time, and he repeatedly switched his message over sacking 41,000 public servants before finally insisting they would all come from Canberra.
He also went out early in supporting Donald Trump, but backed off after the US President’s administration became rapidly radical and nasty, turning off Australian observers.
The Coalition’s controversial and expensive nuclear energy policy failed to garner support and it drowned out his messaging over cost of living.
Mr Dutton also ‘verballed’ Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto during the election campaign over Russia wanting to station war planes in the archipelago nation.
He also made Welcome to Country ceremonies and Indigenous acknowledgements another contentious election issue.
Mr Albanese and his Labor team ran a tight election, staying on message and successfully raising serious doubts in the Australian electorate about the Opposition Leader’s character and his ability to govern the country.
