"I Have Always Believed In Miracles": Morrison Celebrates As Shorten Steps Down

Fraser Anning crashes out of parliament

Fraser Anning, who made headlines around the globe when he was egged by a teenager following anti-Muslim comments he made after the Christchurch terror attack, has lost his seat in the Australian parliament.

Anning unexpectedly became a senator for One Nation in the middle of Australia's political citizenship crisis, during which several politicians were ejected from the parliament after discovering they held dual citizenship.

Anning left One Nation, and created his own political party — Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party — to contest the 2019 election, but fell far short of gaining the required votes to win back a Senate seat.

Needless to say, there is little love lost here.

Morrison: "I have always believed in miracles"

"How good is Australia, and how good are Australians," Scott Morrison declares at the Liberal Party event.

"Tonight is not about me or it's not about even the Liberal Party. Tonight is about every single Australian who depends on their government to put them first."

Morrison thanks "pretty much, the whole state of Queensland", adding: "How good's Queensland!"

Bill Shorten: "I wish we could have done it for Bob."

Bill Shorten has conceded the election to Scott Morrison and said Australia must find a way forward on climate change "for the sake of the next generation".

He also said he would step down as Labor leader.

Standing up just after 11.30pm at the Labor campaign function in Melbourne, Shorten said "Gee, I wish we could have formed a government for these Australians on this evening."

"I wish we could have won for the true believers, for our brothers and sisters in the mighty trade union movement," he said. "I wish we could have done it for Bob [Hawke]. But it was not to be."

Shorten said that Australia remains "deeply divided" on the issue of climate action and said the country must find a way forward.

He finished with a message to young Australians: "Never lose faith in the power of individuals to make a difference."

"Never give up. Never give up aiming for better. Better for your country. Better for your future. Because the things that matter most are the things that are worth fighting for," he said.

"We can't change the past but my word we can change the future!"

What’s going on in the Senate?

Here are some early observations from the upper house.

It looks like Jim Molan, who was fourth on the Coalition Senate ticket and embarked on a campaign to try and get people to vote below the line for him, is unlikely to get a spot in New South Wales.

One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts, and Jacqui Lambie — who were both unceremoniously booted from the Senate during the Section 44 citizenship crisis — are looking likely for a return.

The Greens so far look to have held their Senate seats and not picked up any new ones.

In news that may well resonate around the globe, Fraser Anning is not on track to win a Senate seat.

And despite spending a whopping $50 million Clive Palmer also doesn’t look like he’s going to pick up a seat in Queensland… but remember, he doesn’t give a stuff about what anybody else thinks.

- Lane Sainty

Anthony Albanese: "This country does need a Labor government'

"The fact is that, tonight, is an outcome which is disappointing. I was hoping by, tonight, to be in a position of coming in and being certain that we would be in a position to form government.

"Tonight at this point in time, it's not clear what the outcome will be. We know that there are still millions, literally, of votes to be counted in terms of pre-polls and postals. But tonight we can say, with some confidence, that the only thing we can be confident about is we probably won't know for a few days what the precise outcome of this election is.

"Can I say that Bill Shorten as the leader and our entire team have worked incredibly hard over recent times. I have been someone who has never put myself before the interests of the Labor Party as a whole."

Howard praises Morrison's leadership

"I think Scott Morrison deserves extraordinary credit for the campaign that he's waged.

"He's been an incredibly effective leader. He speaks clearly. He speaks with passion, with conviction. And you understand what he's saying.

"And that's very, very important in politics, for a leader to be clearly understood."

"I did believe very strongly that Bill Shorten had overplayed his hand on the class warfare stuff."

Speaking to the ABC, John Howard says:

"It's not for me to declare draws or victories or whatever — that's a matter for others. But I did feel two things. There was a whiff of 1993 about the last couple of weeks. One side have been ahead in the polls, the other had gained ground during the campaign.

"And I did believe very strongly that Bill Shorten had overplayed his hand on the class warfare stuff. Australians believe in egalitarianism. They reject the politics of class division. And all this stuff about the big end of town and the envy-driven politics of the Labor Party have done them in big time in many areas."

"Queensland is the LNP’s path back to power," Antony Green said early on Saturday night.

As Saturday night's results unfolded, it became clear the state was a disaster for the Labor party.

There have been large swings to the LNP across the state, and Labor has lost at least two seats instead of being able to pick a few off.

Labor's Brendan O'Connor blamed the impact of Clive Palmer's United Australia party and One Nation.

"I think that's in part due to the massive spend by Clive Palmer and One Nation on preferencing to the government, to the Liberal Party," he said.

The results in Queensland have defied opinion polling.

- Read more from Lane Sainty here

A spectacular failure of opinion polling

Antony Green has labelled tonight's results a "spectacular failure of opinion polling" and a "terrible result for the Labor party".

Green cannot see the Labor party forming government based on the numbers at the moment.

"At this stage, it is very hard to see anything other than the Coalition staying in government but we don't know whether that is a majority or minority government," he said.

Still waiting for those WA figures.

- Lane Sainty

More from Tony Abbott's concession speech:

"Well, first I want to say to all of you that tonight we’ve got good news and yes, we’ve got a little bit of bad news. But the good news is much more important than the bad news. The good news is that there is every chance that the Liberal-National Coalition has won this election.

"This is a really extraordinary result. It is a stupendous result. It is a great result for Scott Morrison and the rest of the wider Liberal team and Scott Morrison will now quite rightly enter the Liberal pantheon forever.

"So of course it’s disappointing for us here in Warringah. But what matters is what’s best for the country."

- Read more from Hannah Ryan

Much was made of the fact Morrison effectively ran a presidential campaign, focussing on economic stability and warning against Labor's vast package of reforms.

He campaigned almost entirely alone, staying away from his controversial Cabinet members and made it a choice between him and Bill Shorten.

Much was made of the costings of Labor policies and the so-called "retiree tax".

Morrison bet big on the economy and warned now was not the time for change.

Queensland is not going well for Labor

“Queensland is the LNP’s path back to power,” according to the ABC's Antony Green.

Tonight is certainly not looking great in Queensland for the Labor party. The seats of Herbert and Longman look to be changing hands to the Coalition, and the seats of Blair and Lilley are under threat. Hopes that Ali France might present a challenge to Peter Dutton in Dickson have been dashed.

Suffice to say the polling is not playing out in this key state. Another line from Green: “If Labor doesn’t win this election, they can look at their figures in Queensland and ask what went wrong in Queensland.”

Now eyes are turning to the marginals over in Western Australia, where polling has only closed about half an hour ago.

- Lane Sainty

During the election campaign, the Queensland conservative politician was sent a cease and desist letter over a music video he released on his social media pages.

Read more from Peter Holmes here.

Swinging all over the place

It's all a bit messy at this stage. Mostly because Queensland is going much better for the Coalition than polling suggested. Herbert and Longman are being predicted as Coalition gains.

In other seats potentially changing hands: Lindsay in New South Wales is looking good for the Liberals, while the seat of Gilmore looks to be changing hands to Labor.

It’s not looking good for Labor’s Justine Keay in Braddon, and Shayne Neumann (Blair) and Lilley – the seat held by retiring MP Wayne Swann — are behind too.

And finally a seat almost everyone is watching: Tony Abbott has lost Warringah to independent Zali Steggall.

- Lane Sainty

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has lost his seat.

Abbott lost his bid to be re-elected as the member for Warringah, a seat he has held since 1994, to independent candidate Zali Steggall. ABC election analyst Antony Green called the seat for Steggall on Saturday evening.

Abbott was prime minister from 2013 to 2015. He led the Coalition to victory against Kevin Rudd's Labor government, after serving as opposition leader for four years. In Sept. 2015 he was unseated from the prime ministership by party colleague Malcolm Turnbull.

Read more from Hannah Ryan here

Green has also said it looks like Peter Dutton may be safe in the seat of Dickson.

Democracy sausage reigns supreme on social media

The results are flooding in — but who won the day on social media? Bill Shorten was the most mentioned politician on Facebook, followed by Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott, Pauline Hanson and Peter Dutton.

The top election hashtags on Facebook were: #paulinehanson, #onenation, #democracysausage, #warringahvotes and #religiousfreedom (that last one possibly thanks to Israel Folau).

A state by state breakdown of the top issues discussed on Facebook on election day showed that the economy was front of mind for voters in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia. In Victoria and Tasmania it was foreign policy, while the ACT went for governance.

Over on Instagram the top overall hashtag in Australia was #democracysausage — so I hope you got on that bandwagon and posted a picture of yours. The most popular image was Bill Shorten wearing his “Vote 1 Chloe Shorten’s Husband” t-shirt.

The top emojis used in election-related conversations on Instagram were, in order: 🗳 🌭 🇦🇺 💚 ✅. Make of that what you will!

Bill Shorten dominated the day on Instagram as the most-discussed politician in NSW, Victoria and the ACT — but over in SA and WA Clive Palmer came out on top.

- Lane Sainty

Australians spent the day sharing their memories of the nation's 23rd prime minister, who died on Thursday aged 89.

You can read the tributes and recollections HERE.

They say the eyes are the window to the soul, but really, it's what you type into the Google search bar.

And Australians turned to Google in droves this election to find out all sorts of things before casting a vote.

Some were slightly worrying (Who is Scott Morrison?), some were pretty weird (How tall is Bill Shorten in feet? Are Greens candidates vegans?) and others were perfectly understandable (How to stop Palmer United Party's ads on television?).

Get more insights into the nation’s soul HERE.

- Lane Sainty

Many people in Australia couldn’t vote today, but their lives will be impacted by the outcome.

We spoke to an international student, someone on a working visa and a teenager who was just two months off being able to try and vote out her local member, who she thinks isn’t taking climate change seriously enough.

Read more from Gina Rushton here.

If elected tonight Labor has promised to “end the patchwork of service provision in Australia” by increasing the number of medical abortion drug (RU486) prescribers, expanding public provision of surgical terminations and working closely with states where abortion is still a crime to decriminalise it. Under a Labor government Australia would also get a national telephone referral service linking women to safe providers of termination services. Labor has also promised to make long-acting reversible contraception more accessible and affordable.

The government has not promised anything when it comes to abortion or contraception, but in other women’s health election commitments it has promised money to tackle stillbirth, endometriosis and eating disorders.

Read more from Gina Rushton here

In Borroloola, people are living in tin shacks erected as temporary emergency accommodation after a cyclone in 1984.

Others are living in overcrowded houses in a terrible state of repair.

The Coalition recently resolved a funding stoush with the NT government; Labor has promised double the funding.

- Read more from Hannah Ryan here.

These are the seats to watch tonight

Some of the more high profile contests have been in Sydney seats where independents are in with a shot. These include Warringah, where former prime minister Tony Abbott has been up against independent Zali Steggall, and Wentworth (Malcolm Turnbull’s old seat!) where incumbent Kerryn Phelps is once again up against Liberal Dave Sharma. Other NSW seats to watch include Reid, Gilmore and Robertson and the large regional electorate of Farrer.

Victoria is crucial for Labor, particularly after the landslide victory for Daniel Andrews at the state election. Seats of Chisholm, La Trobe and Casey are on relatively small margins for the Coalition, while redistributions in the seats of Dunkley and Corangamite have damaged the Coalition’s chances of holding seats.

In Queensland, Peter Dutton will be defending the thin margin in his seat of Dickson against ALP challenger Ali France. The Coalition will be watching that closely, as well as other seats with very thin margins including Capricornia, Forde, Petrie, Flynn and Herbert which is held by Labor.

In Western Australia there are a number of metropolitan electorates held by Liberals on relatively small margins: Hasluck, Pearce (held by attorney-general Christian Porter), Swan and Stirling. Labor MP Anne Aly’s seat of Cowan is also on a very slim margin.

In South Australia, Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie holds the seat of Mayo and has been challenged by Georgina Downer. Other seats to watch include Boothy, held by Nicolle Flint.

In Tasmania, people will be watching Braddon, held by Labor on a very thin margin, and Lyons, where the Liberal candidate resigned after anti-Muslim comments on social media were discovered.

- Lane Sainty

One mental health expert said headspace shouldn’t get any more funding and we should try something else – because it had only a “weak effect” on its clients.

Young people told us that they found their headspace sessions helpful but couldn’t always access them in an ongoing way.

Read more from Hannah Ryan here.

The election campaign has seen two very different messages from Labor and the Coalition.

Morrison, the former treasurer, immigration minister, managing director of Tourism Australia, and an “ad man”, has campaigned HARD on the economy.

It was pretty much his main play, that and the fact he is not Bill Shorten, a former union boss.

The Coalition’s key messages were economic stability, the pledge to lower taxes, and the risks of allowing Labor back into power. Morrison brought the annual Budget forward by a month to April this year so big spending promises could be made before the election campaign.

The main promise was tax cuts. Labor said it will back the plans for lower-income earners, but won’t support the cuts for middle- and high-income earners. So that became a clear point of difference between the two major parties. The Coalition’s tax cuts are also slightly complicated by the fact some of them won’t actually happen for years — we’re talking after, not this one, but the next election.

Morrison has tried to run a scare campaign on some of Labor's proposed changes to tax concessions, while job creation, budget surplus, border security and investment in key services have also been promised by the Coalition.

Labor on the other hand is promising A LOT of specific policies. Because Shorten has said his party will not support two-thirds of the Coalition’s tax cuts he has a lot more money to hypothetically play with.

Labor has promised billions for healthcare, including a $2.7 billion cancer package; higher wages for childcare workers; raising the minimum wage; combating climate change and setting significantly higher emissions reductions targets; and closing tax loopholes used by multinational companies.

One of the key messages from Labor is that wages have stagnated but the cost of living in Australia is continuing to go up.

• Read more on how the campaign played out here.

In the Northern Territory electorate of Lingiari — which spans over one million square kilometres and takes in 99.99% of the Northern Territory — an election is a huge logistical event.

Campaigners criss-cross the Territory in chartered flights and four-wheel drives as remote polling moves through communities and outstations in the weeks leading up to election day.

It can also be challenging to vote for people living in these communities, with booths open for as little as one hour and the nearest polling place sometimes hundreds of kilometres away.

Read more from Hannah Ryan here.

Polls are now closed in the eastern states.

The ABC's Antony Green has been unleashed and is telling us which states will have the biggest impact on tonight's result.

We've rounded up the 54 moments from the campaign that made absolutely no sense to anyone. Click here to enjoy!

Polls close at 6pm local time, so in just under 15 minutes on the East Coast.

The Australian Electoral Commission has said potentially 10 million ballot papers will be counted tonight as soon as polling closes.

One of the themes of this campaign has been the millions of people who chose to vote early. The major parties are said they would be interested in reviewing the process in future elections, with some suggestion pre-polling was available for too long.