Key events
Full Story podcast asks: what comes next for the Liberal party?
The Liberal party is facing its worst crisis since it was formed in the 1940s. With Peter Dutton booted out of parliament, the question has quickly turned to who will take over the party’s leadership, and if it can survive the changing mood in the electorate
Nour Haydar talks to chief political correspondent Tom McIlroy about what comes next for the Liberal party.
Listen in full here:
Which demographics swung to Labor?
We have an excellent selection of analysis this morning about what shaped the election result, and what lessons can be drawn from the outcome.
Our number crunchers have been trying to identify the main demographic groups that swung to Labor – and they include urban voters, women, young people and Australians whose first language is not English.
Read the full piece here:
We’ll gravitate to sensible centre, says NSW Liberal leader
Liberals in Australia’s most populous state will focus on the party’s “timeless values” after a federal election drubbing, Australian Associated Press reports.
The party’s NSW branch will not get bogged down in internal or external culture wars, the opposition leader, Mark Speakman, said ahead state parliament resuming today.
“The policies we’ll be developing as an opposition will be evidence-based, they’ll be rigorous, they’ll be prompt, and they will gravitate to the sensible centre of NSW politics,” he told reporters ahead of a shadow cabinet meeting yesterday afternoon.
“Our values of aspiration, opportunity, enterprise, hard work, are timeless, and we will anchor our policies on those.”
His comments came with the Liberals likely to be left with four federal seats on Sydney’s urban fringes after Saturday’s election.
Speakman promised policies will be rolled out in a timely manner before the March 2027 state election.
“But above all be coherent, cohesive and focused on the issues that matter,” he said, pointing to housing affordability, the cost of living, schools, hospitals and infrastructure.
The state branch remains committed to the 2050 net-zero target Speakman announced as environment minister in 2016, with a continuing rollout of renewable energy backed by batteries, pumped hydrogen and gas.
“I can’t see nuclear energy happening in the foreseeable future in NSW, or Australia, but you never say never,” Speakman said.
Watt predicts Labor’s second term will be a ‘bit easier’ in Senate
Caitlin Cassidy
Watt also said Labor was under “no illusions” about the number of people voting for the party for the first time, or rejoining it – while adding “new things” would emerge this term.
The federal government picked up seven seats in the senator’s home state of Queensland in the federal election, including six in Brisbane and Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson. Federally, Labor has enjoyed almost a 3% swing in its favour.
Watt said:
We want to retain that trust by acting in accordance with the mandate that we received. There will be new things that emerge, globally and domestically, that we’ll need to deal with. But the priority is about respecting the mandate that we’ve been given.
Watt said Labor’s second term may also be a “little bit easier” for the federal government given the current makeup of the Senate.
Labor is on track for 28 seats in the Senate, meaning it would only require support of the Coalition or the Greens to pass legislation.
It is a significant change to the Senate … The idea that we can potentially get an outcome with either the Coalition or the Greens without having to cobble together all sorts of Coalitions may make things a little bit easier.
I guess it will also depend on the approach that those parties take in the Senate and I think if there’s one thing that I would hope that both the Coalition and the Greens have learned from the last term is that being obstructive to the government’s agenda actually ends up rebounding on them. I think that that was a really key reason that we saw the Greens in particular go backwards, particularly here in Queensland.
Caitlin Cassidy
Labor to deliver more on housing in second term, Murray Watt says
Labor will be “able to deliver” action it has promised on housing in its second term, the minister for employment and workplace relations, Murray Watt, has flagged.
The Labor senator told ABC’s 7.30 on Monday evening that Labor’s agenda in its first term was “more ambitious” than it is credited for, particularly on housing.
I think this term … we’ll actually now be able to deliver a lot of the things that we have promised in housing.
Pressed on whether Labor would make tax changes in its second term, including to negative gearing, he said the party had been “very clear” that it wasn’t proposing to change its policy and wouldn’t “start scrapping policies” either.
We think that we can meet the needs of younger Australians through the policy platform that we took to the election. Of course, the commitment to reduce Hecs debts by 20% was very popular among younger people. The commitments we’ve made to build more homes for first home-buyers. The 5% deposit scheme backed in by the government was very popular among young voters.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories before the main action kicks off.
Labor have not been given enough credit for policies to ease the housing crisis, Murray Watt said last night, as the Labor senator promised that the new Albanese government “will be able” to deliver more to help in its second term, expecting things to be a little easier for Labor’s policy agenda in the new Senate.
It came as the prime minister warned crossbenchers last night to “get out of the way” and allow the private sector to get on with building more homes. More coming up.
It’s an altogether different outlook for the Liberals who are well on their way to a full-blown existential crisis. Gina Rinehart has suggested the party needs to become more Trumpian while others, especially former senior women MPs and senators such as Linda Reynolds say the party has to reform and get more women into parliament. In New South Wales, the Liberal leader says the party needs to revert to “timeless values” after the drubbing. More on that in a few minutes.
