Category Archives: Australian politics

Larissa Waters urges Labor to be bold while Liberals in ‘electoral wilderness’ and says Greens hurt by ‘Trump effect’

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New federal Greens leader says current political climate an opportunity for ‘real reform’ on environmental protections

Larissa Waters has urged Labor to be bold on environmental protections, saying the Liberal party being left in the “electoral wilderness” means now is the time for the Albanese government to go against its “timidity”.

The new federal Greens leader – who was elected unopposed on Thursday – has also acknowledged her party was a casualty of the Trump effect, sending voters “into the arms of Labor”.

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Lidia Thorpe says she would not rejoin Greens ‘even if my daughter became leader’ – as it happened

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The Reserve Bank is watching closely as the last data domino falls before a pivotal rates meeting.

The RBA’s preferred measure of inflation – the trimmed mean – fell back into target at 2.9% in April, but tightness in the labour market remains a concern for the central bank.

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Australian property bounce after Labor wins second term, early data shows

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More buyers enter the market as auction clearance rates rose to 70% in the week following the election, figures show

Australia’s housing market has surged in the immediate aftermath of Labor’s emphatic election victory, preliminary data shows, while analysts say an anticipated string of rate cuts may see the trend continue.

Auction clearance rates rose to 70% in the week following the election, according to preliminary Cotality data, from 60% in the middle of last month. An auction clearance rate of 70% or above typically indicates sellers are in control of the market.

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Guardian Essential poll: PM’s approval rating surges amid calls to hurry upd housing and health reform

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More than 40% of voters say Labor’s large majority should encourage Anthony Albanese to get more ambitious with policies in key areas

Anthony Albanese’s personal approval rating has spiked off the back of his election win, as an overwhelming majority of Australians call on Labor to rapidly initiate health, housing and energy reform.

More than 40% of voters say Labor’s large parliamentary majority should encourage Albanese to set out an even more ambitious schedule of reform, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll. The prime minister’s popularity has risen to its highest level for a year, the poll showed.

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Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says Tanya Plibersek ‘very positive’ about new role after being shifted from environment portfolio

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Labor’s Tanya Plibersek has avoided comment about her ministerial desires or expectations, offering little other than general remarks when pressed this morning on the issue of the forthcoming cabinet announcement from Anthony Albanese.

Plibersek, who previously held the environment portfolio, told Sunrise this morning that cabinet decisions were “completely a matter for the prime minister” and that she was just “very grateful” to be on the front bench, and to have won the election, and to get to do “a good job for the government and for the people of Australia” again … and, well, you get the idea.

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Anthony Albanese reveals new cabinet with Tanya Plibersek named as minister for social services

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PM has named his new frontbench, including Michelle Rowland as the new attorney-general, after a factional brawl over positions

Tanya Plibersek has been named the minister for social services as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, revealed his new frontbench after Labor’s emphatic election victory.

The biggest changes in the new cabinet include Michelle Rowland, as the new attorney-general; health minister Mark Butler getting the NDIS added to his portfolio; Amanda Rishworth being named the new employment and workplace relations minister; Anika Wells being promoted to the communications portfolio; and Murray Watt taking on the environment portfolio.

Richard Marles – deputy prime minister, minister for defence

Penny Wong – minister for foreign affairs

Jim Chalmers – treasurer

Katy Gallagher – minister for finance, minister for the public service, minister for women, minister for government services

Don Farrell – minister for trade and tourism, special minister of state

Tony Burke – minister for home affairs, minister for immigration and citizenship, minister for cybersecurity, minister for the arts

Mark Butler – minister for health and ageing, minister for disability and the national disability insurance scheme

Chris Bowen – minister for climate change and energy

Catherine King – minister for infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government

Amanda Rishworth – minister for employment and workplace relations.

Jason Clare – minister for education

Michelle Rowland - attorney general.

Tanya Plibersek – minister for social services.

Julie Collins – minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry

Clare O’Neil – minister for housing, minister for homelessness and minister for cities

Madeleine King – minister for resources, minister for northern Australia

Murray Watt – minister for the environment and water

Malarndirri McCarthy – minister for Indigenous Australians

Anika Wells – minister for communications, minister for sport

Pat Conroy – minister for defence industry, minister for Pacific Island affairs

Anne Aly – minister for small business, minister for international development, minister for multicultural affairs

Tim Ayres – minister for industry and innovation, minister for science

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Federal election results: Monique Ryan wins Kooyong while Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian takes Bradfield

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Amelia Hamer could only secure small primary vote swing towards Liberals in Kooyong, while Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown holds inner-Brisbane seat of Ryan

The independent MP Monique Ryan has won Kooyong in Melbourne, holding off her Liberal challenger, but Nicolette Boele, another Climate 200-backed candidate, is expected to fall short on Sydney’s north shore.

The ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, on Monday projected that Ryan would maintain her slim lead in the Melbourne seat, where she led by about 700 votes with a few thousand left to count.

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Australia news live: Littleproud says Canavan leadership challenge ‘healthy’; teen caught with knife and fake gun outside AFL match

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Nationals leader applauds his colleague for having the courage to put up his hand. Follow today’s news live

Nationals leader David Littleproud is backing his record to hold on to the party’s top job as he faces a challenge from a fellow Queenslander.

The minor Coalition party faces a leadership tussle after Queensland senator Matt Canavan threw his hat in the ring.

We shouldn’t get upset about democracy taking place.

This is healthy for our democracy.

From my perspective, I still think I have a contribution to make and I want to do so. Someone once said that success isn’t final, failure isn’t fatal and the courage to continue is what matters. Here I am, a Labor MP quoting Churchill on Insiders. That’s where we’ve got to.

Indeed. Can I say, the party has given me great opportunities. Its faith in me, particularly with my faith, allowed me in part to make and break records, I’ve challenged the status quo and conservativism. It provides hope and aspiration for others. I want to be part of that.

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Australia news live: Erin Patterson’s daughter says her mother was a ‘very good cook’; PM’s department boss quits

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Erin Patterson’s daughter’s pre-recorded video evidence is being played to the jury in Patterson’s triple murder trial. Follow today’s news live

‘I want to harness all the talent in my team’

“We do need to reflect a modern Liberal party,” Sussan Ley says. She is speaking on Sunrise before the Liberals’ party room meeting on Tuesday, when they will select a new leader:

It’s about making sure that I am listening to my colleagues and … demonstrate to them we want a strong approach that includes everyone. I want to harness all of the talent in my team, take it forward under my leadership and meet the Australian people where they are because, clearly we didn’t do that at the last election. But we do need to reflect a modern Liberal party, meeting modern Australians in every single walk of life across the country.

On the weekend, we suffered a significant election defeat and since then, I have been having many conversations with my colleagues, members of the community, with members of the party, indeed the Coalition, with everyday Australians. I have listened. We got it wrong. We need to do things differently, going forward, and we do need a fresh approach. So, on Tuesday morning when the Liberal party room meets in Canberra, I will be putting myself forward for the position of leader of the federal party.

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Sarah Witty v Adam Bandt: how an unlikely Labor champion took down a Greens giant

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Melbourne was barely on the ALP’s radar as a seat it could win – but a sparsely funded campaign proved powerful

Labor could hardly be considered a metaphorical David in most federal election contests. But in the progressive seat of Melbourne, where the now-beaten Greens leader Adam Bandt had reigned for 15 years, there are similarities to the oft-told biblical story.

On 28 March, when Anthony Albanese called an election date for May, Melbourne appeared on no one’s list as a battle to watch.

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Adam Bandt concedes defeat in seat of Melbourne as Greens leadership talks loom

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Greens leader uses concession speech to urge media to treat climate crisis ‘as if our country is being invaded’

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has conceded defeat in his electorate of Melbourne, saying he “fell just short” of holding the seat.

“A short time ago I called the Labor candidate for Melbourne, Sarah Witty, to concede, to congratulate her and to wish her all the best as the next member for Melbourne,” Bandt said in a statement.

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Australia news live: Rudd criticises Trump’s proposed ‘tax on Bluey’; Faruqi refuses to concede Bandt will lose Melbourne

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Australia’s ambassador to the US has taken aim at the proposal to put tariffs on screen productions. Follow today’s news live

Ben Raue’s predictions for Menzies, Bullwinkel and Bradfield

Analyst Ben Raue also predicted that Labor’s Gabriel Ng lead by 1,145 votes in Menzies, Victoria, will “grow slightly”.

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Australia news live: federal election 2025 results; AEC and Senate vote count continues today – latest update

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Liberal candidate says he is ‘proud’ to represent electorate after being ‘written off’ three years ago. Follow today’s live news and reaction to the 2025 Australian federal election results

Max Chandler-Mathers on housing: Labor refused to negotiate then told media the Greens were blocking their bills

Asked about criticism that the Greens slowed down progress on housing on Triple J Hack, Max Chandler-Mather said Anthony Albanese was “basically saying that, and it just wasn’t true, but then the media repeated as fact”.

It was odd for me, I have to say, because I would be sitting in a negotiating room with the prime minister or with the housing minister, and we’d be privately saying we’re willing to give up everything on our side of negotiations if you just build a bit more public housing. And then they say, ‘Nah, no way, we’re not giving you a thing’. And then they go out into the media and say, ‘The Greens are blocking housing’.

In the house, a lot of those things didn’t get across that you were hoping or that you were promising, the rent freezes, the rent caps, the negative gearing changes, the doubling of capital gains tax … That stuff didn’t get across the line, but Labor’s housing policies still did.

I’ll be honest, one of the things I’m quite happy about at the moment is I don’t have to spend more time in the House of Representatives, because, like, basically every time I stood up, I got screamed and yelled at. In terms of a workplace, it was bloody awful, and frankly, a lot of the times miserable.

The only reason I kept going back because it felt like we were one of the few voices fighting for millions of people who feel really let down by this political system …

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Too close to call: follow the federal election results in the undecided seats here

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Things are looking rocky in Bullwinkel for Labor but it’s likely the party will hold Richmond against the Greens

Election night ended with at least 16 seats too close to call. Here you can see a list of those which were, as of Wednesday morning, still undecided and our reasons for holding off from making predictions about who will win them.

We’re going to leave the electorates on this list even after predictions have been made so if something happens you won’t miss it.

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Huge swings to Labor from Chinese Australian voters in key seats show Liberals failed to rebuild trust, experts say

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Community convincingly chooses Labor in Melbourne and Sydney seats, despite opposition efforts to engage after 2022 review

Suburbs with significant Chinese Australian populations in key marginal seats recorded huge swings to Labor of up to 30%, and strategists and analysts warn the Liberal party has failed to rebuild trust with the community.

The Liberal party’s review of the 2022 federal election found hawkish rhetoric on China cost it votes in several seats with high numbers of Chinese Australians. It called for greater community outreach and to rebuild trust before the 2025 poll.

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Victorian Labor was bracing for a federal backlash – now Jacinta Allan sees vindication

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Despite relentless commentary about the premier’s unpopularity, the state swung even harder to Labor than in 2022, while the Liberal party blame game has begun

If anyone is as happy as Anthony Albanese right now, it’s Jacinta Allan.

As the federal election results rolled in on Saturday night, one of the biggest surprises came in Victoria – where Labor defied months of grim predictions to strengthen its grip on the state.

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Simon Birmingham calls out ‘broken’ Liberal party model as Sussan Ley says Coalition reflecting on results ‘with humility’ – as it happened

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Littleproud on Labor: ‘They’re a slick machine’

Finally, David Littleproud is asked about what impact Donald Trump had on the outcome after Labor sought to tie Peter Dutton to the US president throughout the campaign.

What Anthony Albanese and the Labor team were able to was to really tap into these sorts of issues and then paint a bigger picture and destroy his character.

I think there’s a lesson in how they (Labor) did politics. They did it a lot better than us, and you’ve got to acknowledge that they’re a slick machine.

I think it’s part of the contagion of the way in which American politics has infused its way in to Australian politics, but very few people would have seen this coming and would have seen it coming certainly to the extent that it has happened.

My own view is that it’s an awful influence on Australian politics and something that we would do well to repudiate. Notwithstanding, you know the strength and the warmth and the importance of the relationship with the United States, in my opinion, Donald Trump does not have a role in relation to Australian domestic politics and we would do well to make that clear.

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Australian election: Anthony Albanese claims a piece of history as scale of Labor victory stuns raucous crowd | Josh Butler

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The Australian prime minister is the first to be re-elected since John Howard – and becomes one of Labor’s biggest heroes

It might have been the surprise packet of the night, but Labor picked up as early as January that it had a sniff in Dickson.

Early in the evening – hours before Anthony Albanese raised workers’ rights, housing, gender equality, childcare, the NDIS and Indigenous reconciliation as the priorities of his second-term Labor government – the hundreds-strong crowd at his election night party grew round-eyed as results from Dickson started pouring in on the television screens.

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Anywhere but Canberra: meet some of the voters who will decide Australia’s 2025 federal election

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Guardian Australia spoke to a range of people all across the country to ask about their lives and perspectives ahead of Saturday’s ballot

Over the past three months, Guardian Australia has been speaking to ordinary people about their everyday lives – their families, work, hobbies, stressors and hopes.

These interviews have formed our Anywhere But Canberra series – a portrait of what different people across the country are dealing with in the lead up to the federal election. We wanted to see how people’s lives and perspectives shaped their votes.

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The polls point to a Labor win, but its primary vote is barely moving – can both things be true?

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Labor’s confidence going into Saturday’s election is tempered by gnawing anxiety about the underlying polling data

Australia’s major parties are headed for a historically low primary vote, continuing a downward trend of several decades, according to the latest from Guardian Australia’s poll tracker. Labor leads the Coalition 51.5-48.5 on the two-party-preferred measure according to our latest average, although there is still uncertainty in the polling.

The two-party-preferred vote has been trending towards a repeat of the last election, but this masks a more than two-point primary vote drop for both major parties. The votes lost by the major parties have gone “everywhere”, according to pollsters who spoke to Guardian Australia. Our model estimates the support for independents and minor parties is four points higher than at the last election.

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