Category Archives: Australia news

Anthony Albanese’s election victory restores the faith of Labor’s true believers

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With many supporters still bearing the scars of the 2019 election loss, it was only when the Western Australian results streamed in that they dared to dream

It was only around the time the pyramid of Albo ale cans was built – red cylinders piled four rows high – that Labor supporters started daring to believe they’d gotten home.

Nine years in the wilderness of opposition and three crushing defeats had put up a wall of doubt among Labor faithful that they could pull this off. Three years of what many in the camp called “PTSD” from the 2019 election was taken down, brick by brick as the ABC’s Antony Green called another seat for Labor, or another loss for the Liberals.

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Senate may have a progressive majority as Greens and David Pocock make election gains

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If Saturday’s count points to the final result, Anthony Albanese’s government will not face a hostile upper house

While election night coverage was mostly focused on the House of Representatives, there has been a significant shift to the left, potentially setting up a progressive Senate majority, unlike the deadlock experienced by the first Rudd government.

Labor and the Greens hold only 35 seats in the outgoing Senate, meaning they need to win four more for the Greens to hold the sole balance of power. Labor will want to avoid the deadlock experience from 2008 to 2011, when Labor needed the Greens, Nick Xenophon and Family First senator Steve Fielding to pass legislation. This deadlock led the Rudd government to instead work with the opposition on climate legislation, among other issues, and thus opened up the space for Tony Abbott to wreck the government’s agenda.

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Western Australia goes all in on red – and it could deliver Labor majority government

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Large swings in WA meant the Liberals lost Hasluck, Swan, Pearce and Tangney and will have just five seats – down from 10 – after the election

It wasn’t quite the bloodbath the Liberal party suffered in Western Australia’s state election in 2021, but a huge 11% swing to Labor has proved crucial to the Coalition’s federal election defeat.

The “red wave” in the west was the biggest swing nationally and could deliver Labor a parliamentary majority.

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Australian election 2022: Anthony Albanese ‘humbled’ to be next PM as voters abandon Coalition

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Labor leader pledges to implement Uluru statement and to end climate wars, while Scott Morrison says he will stand down as Liberal leader after defeat

Anthony Albanese will be Australia’s next prime minister, leaving the Coalition in disarray after it lost more than a dozen seats to Labor and independents in an election that has transformed the country’s political landscape.

Declaring victory shortly before midnight on Saturday, Albanese thanked voters for the “extraordinary honour” of becoming the nation’s 31st prime minister, and said he would work in government to bring Australians together.

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Clive Palmer’s massive advertising spend fails to translate into election success for United Australia party

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UAP vote increases slightly to around 4.7% but was exceeded by the One Nation vote

Clive Palmer’s mammoth campaign spend of close to $100m has failed to deliver his party results, with its primary vote failing to reach 5% across the country.

In both regional and metropolitan areas, the United Australia vote increased slightly to about 4.7%, and was strongest in Queensland where it polled close to 6%.

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Anthony Albanese claims election victory over Scott Morrison in 2022 federal election – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese arrives for speech; Scott Morrison to step down as leader after conceding defeat; ‘Liberal family suffered a terrible day,’ Peter Dutton says; Labor claims Reid; Zoe Daniel claims victory in Goldstein; Allegra Spender wins Wentworth from Dave Sharma. This blog is now closed

I’m a fairly big footy fan, but not sure how much all these analogies mean to the rest of voters (and I believe kicking into the wind can actually be an advantage in rugby union sometimes?)

On Weekend Today, Scott Morrison managed to turn a question about whether he has BBQ sauce on his democracy sausage into a stump speech about jobkeeper and co-funding the hospital system during the pandemic. We can’t fault him - those are more important issues than what he was asked.

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Federal court orders removal of anti-Labor signs in three Victorian electorates

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Labor sought urgent injunction to remove misleading campaign material in Higgins, McEwen and Hawke that used Greens colours and read ‘For our future, put Labor last’

The federal court has ordered the removal of anti-Labor campaign material appearing across three electorates in Victoria, including the ultra marginal seat of Higgins.

Labor on Saturday sought an urgent injunction to remove campaign material appearing in Higgins, McEwen and Hawke, which used the Greens’ party colours and read “For our future, put Labor last”.

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Scott Morrison breaks own rule against commenting on ‘on-water matters’ to confirm asylum boat intercepted

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PM says Australians ‘need to vote Liberal and Nationals’ so he can stop future boats, despite Labor’s identical policy on boat turnbacks

Scott Morrison has breached his own rule against commenting on “on-water matters”, confirming an asylum seeker boat from Sri Lanka has been intercepted.

In a last-ditch pitch to voters on election day, Morrison told Australians they “need to vote Liberal and Nationals” for him to be there to stop future boats, despite Labor having an identical policy to intercept and turn back boats where safe to do so.

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‘Caught unawares’: Covid is preventing Australians in hospital from voting

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Mobile polling in health facilities was stopped amid the pandemic and patients in hospital unexpectedly have no way to cast their ballot

Australians unexpectedly admitted to hospital before the election are struggling to cast their vote due to a decision to abort mobile polling in health facilities due to Covid.

The Australian Electoral Commission announced before the campaign that it would not be sending mobile teams into hospitals to take votes in the lead-up to polling day, in an attempt to balance voting access with the risk of spreading Covid in vulnerable settings.

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Scott Morrison softened his defiant language on climate change action amid UK trade deal

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Documents indicate PM’s changes to foreign policy speech coincided with environment agreement in trade talks

Scott Morrison softened his defiant language on climate action in a foreign policy speech in June 2021, shortly after officials appeared to have finalised the environment-related parts of the Australia-UK free trade agreement, documents obtained under freedom of information laws reveal.

The timing is outlined in government documents obtained by Guardian Australia, alongside draft talking points denying climate policy was causing any delays to the trade negotiations.

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World record remains just outside reach of Ariarne Titmus at Australian swim trials

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  • Titmus wins 200 metres freestyle at championships in Adelaide
  • Olympic champion targeting Federica Pellegrini’s benchmark

Ariarne Titmus is happy at swimming fast again but annoyed she cannot yet break the longest-standing women’s world record. Titmus won the 200 metres freestyle at the Australian championships on Friday night, swimming faster than when she won Olympic gold in the event last year.

Titmus clocked one minute 53.31 seconds in Adelaide, some 0.19 seconds quicker than when she won the event at the Tokyo Games. The dual Olympic champion was eyeing the world record of 1:52.98 set by Italy’s Federica Pellegrini in 2009 during the super-suit era, the longest-standing benchmark in women’s swimming.

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NSW government underspent on PPE and mental health, audit of $7.5bn Covid spending finds

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Auditor general says state agencies forked out close to $200m on faulty imported masks and ventilators

The New South Wales government underspent on personal protective equipment and mental health services and forked out close to $200m on faulty imported masks and ventilators as part of the state’s $7.5bn pandemic expenditure, a review has found.

The auditor general released a detailed report on Friday after examining the state’s spending from the first case detected in January 2020 to the middle of 2021.

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Chris Dawson’s former student tells court she wanted his missing wife to come back

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Woman known as JC told Dawson’s murder trial she felt obliged to move in with him and had wanted to return to her life as a 17-year-old

Chris Dawson’s former student and babysitter has admitted working on a book titled The Schoolgirl, Her Teacher and His Wife, but denied it was because she wanted revenge.

Questioned by defence barrister Pauline David in the NSW supreme court on Friday, the woman known only as JC rejected the suggestion her claims she had been Dawson’s sex slave were a good way to sell her book.

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Guardian Australia readers: who do you think is going to win the federal election?

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So far we’ve had a dugong, a crocodile, a turtle, betting agencies and multiple polls try to predict the result of the 2022 election. Now it’s your turn to tell us who will win

With the polls tightening in the final days of the campaign, Saturday’s election is expected to be a close match.

Labor is desperately hoping the widespread anti-Morrison sentiment will be enough to deliver victory and polls suggest they are in front, but the party is still scarred by the experience of 2019, when polling pointed to an ALP win, only for its advantage to evaporate on the day.

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Triple-zero overhaul: 21 Victorians died waiting for an ambulance in past six months, inquiry hears

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Failures in triple-zero system blamed for 18 of the deaths, Ambulance Victoria chief tells budget estimates hearing

Twenty-one Victorians have died waiting for an ambulance over the past six months, a budget estimates hearing has been told.

Failures in the triple-zero system have been blamed for 18 of the deaths with three attributed to paramedics not getting to patients on time, Ambulance Victoria’s acting chief executive, Libby Murphy, said on Friday.

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Robbie McEwen apologises for using ‘offensive phrase’ during Giro d’Italia broadcast

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Robbie McEwen, the former cyclist and now commentator, says he’s ‘genuinely sorry’ for using a homophobic slur during a broadcast, which he says was ‘unintentional’

Robbie McEwen, the former cyclist and now commentator, has apologised for using a homophobic slur during a broadcast of stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia.

The Australian three-time Tour de France points classification winner, who retired from professional cycling in 2012, said he “unintentionally” used the phrase during commentary on Eurosport and GCN+ earlier this week.

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Final polls roll in as Albanese and Morrison hit campaign home stretch – as it happened

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Roy Morgan poll puts Labor ahead; Greens hopeful of picking up Senate seats; eligibility for telephone voting formally changed; health authorities give monkeypox update ; Julia Gillard says Labor would be ‘a government for women’; at least 52 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

The voting issue is gaining momentum.

Between Covid, problems for some people overseas, coronavirus impacting the available workforce and the ability to open up booths, particularly in rural and regional communities, and the impact of floods in northern NSW, voting has been a very fraught issue this time round, and the AEC has been working overtime trying to plug the gaps.

That is up to them. I have always respected the decisions of Australians, those quiet Australians as I refer to them, they are out there working hard every day and they are considering their choice very carefully.

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Rainy election day in Sydney and Brisbane won’t dampen democracy sausages

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Weather bureau says wettest conditions expected for voters in Queensland but mostly fine weather likely in other capitals

It’s set to be a chilly and rainy election day in parts of Australia’s east coast, while other major cities look likely to enjoy perfect weather to exercise their democratic right.

Voters in Sydney and Brisbane will probably need to bring umbrellas and wear coats to the polling booth on Saturday, with rain and light winds predicted through the weekend. Citizens in Melbourne and Adelaide can expect clear and mostly sunny voting conditions with some clouds and the chance of late rain in Perth.

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Juukan Gorge traditional owners sign agreement with Rio Tinto to co-manage WA mining land

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Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people will have say on future of mines on native title area, two years after heritage site was blown up

The traditional owners of Juukan Gorge have signed a preliminary agreement with Rio Tinto to co-manage land that is still being mined for iron ore.

The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people said the mining giant broke their trust with the destruction of the 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site, which was blown up by Rio Tinto in May 2020 in an effort to access more high-grade iron ore at its Brockman 4 mine.

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Dugong sees red: Pig the sea cow predicts Labor will win Australian election (sort of)

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In completely unscientific experiment the Sydney Aquarium resident sided with a tortoise and crocodile in predicting Anthony Albanese victory

Pig came out of the deep, a slow-moving mass in search of an answer to the question arresting the mind of the nation: who will emerge from the federal election victorious?

The dugong’s performance was precise and assured. A red and blue toy representing each major party were dropped into Pig’s enclosure, and after mere moments consulting his mystic powers, he disappeared below the water’s surface.

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