Fresh leadership challenge rocks Australian politics – and the big loss Labor NEVER saw coming as the final election results come clear and are full of surprises

The Liberal Party has won Longman in Queensland and Flinders in Victoria, while the Labor Party has picked up the new seat of Bullwinkel in Western Australia.

The likely complexion of the House of Representatives will see Labor holding 93 seats to the Coalition’s 44, with 13 crossbenchers including one Green, assuming the minor party hangs on to win the seat of Ryan in Queensland.

It is an extraordinary result for the Labor Party, winning a record majority with its equal second lowest primary vote ever (34.7 per cent).

In fact, it recorded the same primary support the party did in 2019 when Bill Shorten lost to Scott Morrison.

On that occasion Labor only won 68 seats.

It is a marker of falling support for major parties, with an increasing number of voters preferencing independent and minor parties ahead of the major parties.

While Labor’s primary vote was low, the Coalition’s was even smaller, at an all time historical low of just 32.7 per cent.

Despite the embarrassing loss of the dancing teal Zoe Daniel, the group of independents aren’t going to see their numbers diminish in the House of Representatives, with Jess Price set to defeat Labor incumbent David Smith in the ACT seat of Bean.

It is a surprise result for most pundits, with the showdown receiving very little attention before Saturday night when Price surfaced as a serious contender.

She’s only 165 votes ahead, so it is incredibly tight, but the trend is her friend as enough of small remaining number of votes go her way.

We can also forecast the Liberals as hanging on to their heartland north shore Sydney seat of Bradfield, in a tight race against teal challenger and controversial hairdressing dirty talker Nicolette Boele.

Boele is more than 250 votes behind with not enough ballots left to count to see her overhaul her Liberal opponent unless there is a dramatic shift in current trends.

She spent the last three years campaigning, styling herself as the ‘Shadow Member for Bradfield’.

It comes after Monique Ryan held off a fast moving finish by Amelia Hamer in Kooyong, leaving the door ajar for former Liberal leader and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to make a political comeback and challenge to win back his seat in three years’ time.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan will challenge David Littleproud for the leadership of the National Party, the ABC has reported.

Canavan is currently in the Senate so it is unclear whether he would seek to move to the lower house.

The Nationals’ party room is meeting on Monday morning where he will seek to oust Littleproud.

Zoe Daniel is still refusing to concede defeat against Tim Wilson in her (soon to be former) electorate of Goldstein, asking everyone to respect the democratic process and wait for all votes to be counted.

The Climate200-funded MP and former journalist released a statement on Friday afternoon in which she stressed she understood ‘everyone’s desire to rule a line under the election result in Goldstein’.

‘I would also prefer it was resolved,’ she said.

‘However, there are still up to 10,000 votes to count including postals, absentee and pre-poll declaration votes.

‘The AEC has not yet declare the seat. Please respect the process and voters until a definitive position is clear.’

Yeah, right. That’s despite dancing around like a pelican on election night and claiming victory when she thought that she’d won.

Wilson is ahead by 1,300 votes with just over 7,000 votes left to count. Daniel would need to win the remaining count with 60 percent support to pull off a win, which is pie in the sky thinking.

Wilson has already claimed victory and every political commentator and election analyst has called the result in Goldstein.

She reminds me of Donald Trump in 2020 refusing to concede that he’d lost the election.

While we have to wait for Daniel to accept she’s lost, let’s hope when that day finally comes she’ll post another dancing video.

This time to the track Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day.

Until the May 3 election, Labor had never held a federal electorate in this wealthy part of Australia, and it had been more than four decades since the ALP held any state seat there whatsoever.

The PM poste a selfie with the new intake of Labor MPs.

‘New Labor MPs. Same mission,’ he wrote on X.

‘Helping with the cost of living and building Australia’s future.’

Disgraced former Queensland state Labor minister Gordon Nuttall has died at the age of 71, following a battle with kidney cancer.

Nuttall was jailed for seven years in 2009 for receiving more than $500,000 in corrupt payments from two businessmen he then helped to secure lucrative government contracts.

The court of appeal in 2011 ruled Nuttall’s conduct was so serious that his total jail time should be extended from 12 to 14 years.

He was finally released in 2015 after spending six years behind bars.

Former premier Queensland premier Peter Beattie condemned Nuttall’s actions as a profound betrayal of public trust.

‘He betrayed the people of Queensland, his ministerial colleagues, the state government and me,’ Mr Beattie said in 2023.

In his later years, Nuttall spoke publicly about the harsh conditions he endured at Wolston Maximum Security Prison in Wacol, describing being treated ‘exactly the same as the worst of the worst’ inmates.

‘I think the hardest part was dealing with the enormity of the sentence. When I first went in, I just could not see past the horizon; I just thought, I’m not going to make it,’ he told the Courier Mail.

‘I honestly didn’t think I would make it. It was a day-by-day thing. Every morning I’d wake up and pray to make it through.’

His family said they are ‘devastated’ by his death.

‘Now is the time he should be left to rest in peace,’ they said.

Born in Brisbane, Nuttall began his career as a state organiser for the Electrical Trades Union before entering parliament in 1992 as the member for Sandgate, a seat he held until his resignation in 2006.

He held the primary industries, health and industrial relations portfolios in cabinet.

Angus Taylor has confirmed what everyone knew: he will run for the Liberal Party leadership.

‘This is not a decision I’ve taken lightly but it is one I’ve taken with conviction following discussions with many of my colleagues this week,’ Taylor said in a statement, first reported by news.com.au.

‘We must operate like a campaign every day – with strong candidates, clearer messages, smarter strategies, and greater fundraising,’ he added.

‘None of this will be easy. Reform never is. But the road to government begins with doing the hard things now, not later.

‘Our party is at a crossroads. After the result on Saturday, we owe it to our members, our supporters, and the millions of Australians who believe in our cause to regroup, rebuild, and get back in the fight.’

It is now a contest between Taylor and Sussan Ley.

The party’s MPs and senators will decide on who will lead them in a vote on Tuesday.

Read all about both candidates below:

The PM’s passionate address to the Labor party caucus was suddenly interrupted by a rogue mobile ringtone – his own.

‘And make sure no-one ever — no-one should leave their phone on in caucus,’ he said to much laughter.

One MP shouted: ‘We’ll forgive you!’

But Albanese shot back: ‘Thank you. Well, I haven’t been re-elected (party leader) yet.’

His phone rang again at the end of his speech.

‘Unbelievable. Why aren’t you watching?’ he said to whoever had the temerity to ring him.

‘To the viewers at home, stop ringing! Thanks very much.’

Anthony Albanese has received an incredibly warm welcome from the Labor party caucus room.

He threw back to the first Labor caucus meeting almost exactly 125 years ago on May 8, 1901.

‘On that first Caucus, there were 22 people and guess what they had in common?’, he said to laughter.

‘They were all blokes. Everyone of them. It was a very narrow picture even that of what Australia was.

‘I look around this room and say a representative group, a majority of women, up to we are still counting but at least 57 per cent women.’

The PM received a huge applause.

He also criticised the Opposition’s ‘anti-Canberra rhetoric’.

‘The sort of frankly juvenile anti-Canberra rhetoric that we saw from the Coalition really hurt them during this campaign. It really did,’ he said.

He was referring to Peter Dutton’s comments about choosing to live in Kirribilli House in Sydney rather than the Lodge in Canberra if he was elected PM.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has back after being abused by an Aboriginal activist in a hotel lobby, telling the woman: ‘I don’t care… you’re a nobody.’

Bystanders in the foyer of the Intercontinental Hotel in Adelaide were left aghast on Wednesday evening when activist Marianne Mackay started shouting at Senator Price who was checking in.

Mackay, who stood as a candidate for the Socialist Alliance in the 2021 WA state election, told Senator Price ‘your people don’t love you’.

‘You might be a Senator but you are not respected by your own people,’ she yelled at Senator Price, as a member of the hotel security staff tried to shepherd her out of the door.

‘Your own elders have more respect for me than you.’

Senator Price, who was walking away with her bags in the video first reported by The Australian newspaper, turned back to Mackay, saying: ‘You’re a nobody.’

Mackay, a Yoorgabilya woman from the Whadjuk Noongar Nation and a mother of seven, has campaigned on deaths in custody, refugee rights and uranium mining.

‘Creating a better society for all and living in peace with the planet starts with recognising that Aboriginal people never ceded sovereignty over this land,’ she has previously said.

‘Native Title is completely inadequate. We are calling for a treaty with real land rights that cannot be overridden by mining companies, and a society where Aboriginal people do not have to give up their land to get access to basic services.’

Dan Tehan has officially ruled himself out of the Liberal party leadership race.

The re-elected Wannon MP said he is prepared to ‘work hard and serve in whatever capacity I am asked to rebuild our party’.

The contest is now between Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor.

Jacinta Price has taken the first step on her quest to become Prime Minister, shifting from the Nationals to the Liberal Party room in the wake of Saturday’s crushing defeat.

What has to happen from here for Price to achieve her ambition?

1. She’ll need to shift to the lower house. To be PM that’s essential. But she doesn’t need to do it this term. She can aim to move to one of the marginal Northern Territory lower house seats at the next election, but that likely means she can’t be leader before then. John Gorton shifted from the Senate to the House shortly after being elected Liberal leader and PM, but it’s highly unusual to do it in that order.

2. Price will need to find a way to appeal across the Liberal Party. Right now she’s a pin up girl for the conservatives, but needs to also convince moderates that she’s a force to be reckoned with – especially after the party’s disaster in city seats at this election as well as in 2022.

3. Beyond the above Price must show that she’s not a one-trick pony. She was a star for the No camp during the Voice campaign but to appeal as a major party leader needs to be broader than that.

4. Finally, Price needs to begin networking amongst Liberal MPs. They decide the party leader and in Liberal Party terms she is a newbie. They need to believe that she can satisfy their ambitions by pursuing hers. They want to win government and if they think she can do that she’ll be well placed to make her bold play a success.

New faces will be welcomed to the fold as Labor politicians come together for the first time since their emphatic victory at the federal election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address the caucus meeting in Canberra on Friday after his party’s landslide win.

The scale of the success has taken even senior Labor ministers by surprise, lending to a buoyant feeling among the party’s members.

A record number of women will be taking their seats in parliament, and will outnumber men in the Labor partyroom.

At least 46 seats will be held by women in the Labor government out of a total of 150 in the House of Representatives.

More than a dozen new MPs will join the ranks after Labor increased its seats from 77 to at least 90 as the count continues.

Australian National University political historian Frank Bongiorno said Labor hadn’t had a victory this size since 1943.

‘It’s a remarkable opportunity for the government to craft a legacy, which could extend even beyond this term,’ he said.

‘Governments don’t normally extend their majorities… you normally win your first election reasonably comfortably, and then you begin burning political capital straight away in that first term, and then often have to scrape a win the second time round.’

New Dickson MP Ali France has been hailed a ‘Labor legend’ after she became the first person to unseat an opposition leader at an election with her defeat of Peter Dutton.

Former Tasmanian state opposition leader Rebecca White’s victory in Lyons has her among the contenders to be elevated to the ministry, expected to be unveiled on Monday ahead of a swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has accused Jacinta Price of ‘changing teams on the football field’ after she dumped the Nationals to sit in the Liberal Party room.

As a member of the Country Liberal Party, she can choose where she sits in Canberra between the Liberal Party and the Nationals, opting for the latter in the past.

‘I don’t know how you can go to the people one week and say, “I’m going to represent this party in the nation’s parliament”, and then the very next week, turn around: “So actually, I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to go to a different side”,’ Canavan told Sky News.

‘It’s like changing teams on the football field. And it’s the sort of kind of thing that Lidia Thorpe did.

‘How is what Jacinta is doing any different From what Lidia did? She’s doing this for her.’

Thorpe infamously left the Greens to sit as an independent in 2023 over the party’s support for the Voice referendum, which she opposed.

Senator Price was confronted about Canavan’s comments on 2GB.

‘Matt’s forgetting that I am a country Liberal Party senator for the Northern Territory, and… we live in a democracy, and Matt is absolutely one for championing democracy,’ she told Ben Fordham.

‘The decision I have chosen, which is something I can do as part of the country Liberal Party, is which party room I sit in in federal parliament, to be quite honest, it is something that I wanted to do from the first time I was elected.’

Former PM Paul Keating has unleashed on Anthony Albanese for dumping two senior ministers in his forthcoming cabinet reshuffle.

Sussan Ley has announced she will run for the Liberal Party leadership, and candidly admitted that it had failed women during the election campaign.

If susccessful, she would become the first woman to lead the Liberal Party.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was asked directly on Friday morning if she harboured ambitions to one day lead the Liberal Party – and eventually become PM.

The current Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians certainly didn’t deny it, telling 2GB’s Ben Fordham that it was a ‘massive ask’.

‘I certainly need to be able to learn the ropes and understand how to be able to support the Australian people to the best of my capacity,’ she said.

Senator Price insisted her sole focus was about how the party can ‘espouse Australian values’.

‘How do we get our country into a position that is a hell of a lot better than it currently is?’, she asked.

‘And what is it the Australian people need and are all asking for?

‘Those are a lot of considerations. You don’t take any decision lightly at all, and for me, ultimately, it will always go back to the fact that under circumstances for our most marginalised, their lives need to improve, they’re not going to improve under Labor’s watch – they never have.’