Did you come here tonight expecting to party?
Yes, I did, a real name, but I don't think it would be this good. Yeah.
Good.
Against all expectations, Anthony Albernizi has led the Labor Party to victory with an increased majority, winning a sway the seats across the country for the coalition. The outcome is devastating and Peter Dutton is out of a job. On top of that, the next generation of Liberal leadership has been wiped off the electoral map, setting the party back for years to come. From Schwartz Media, I'm Daniel James.
This is seven am. Today we take you inside Anthony Albernese's election night party with special correspondent for the Saturday Paper, Jason Gottsukis. We find out how labored to find the odds and what it means for the country. It's Sunday, May four.
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Meet these challengers, seize these opportunities and build that better and stronger future. Australians have chosen a majority Labor government.
Jason, We've just come from the room where Anthony Albinezi gave his victory speech to I'm a rard of ALP supporters, followers and true believers. What did he have to say?
Well, I haven't heard Labor supporters cheer as loudly and with as much passion in their cheers as since nineteen ninety three, when Paul Kenny, of course, won that famous victory, which he described as a victory for the true believers, the sweetest victory of all. I think everyone in that room tonight felt this victory was even sweeter because Labor
was expected to at best win minority. But they've won a thumping majority win and you could hear the relief, the joy in the voices of those cheering there tonight. I thought the Prime Minister sounded a lot more confident than he did in his twenty twenty two victory speech. And one of the things that he talked about was, you know, kindness.
For the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need.
Many times he talked about Australian values and how the Labor Party has held true to these values.
We do not seek our inspiration overseas, we find.
It right here in our values.
And in our people.
He talked about optimism and determination and these enduring foundations of fairness and equality. But the biggest cheer at the end of that list was when he pulled out his Medicare carpet.
This card is not Labor red or Liberal blue, it is green and gold, and.
The crowd absolutely loved that and nearly lifted the roof off the auditorium up there.
Did the scale of the victory surprise you? Well?
A shock result in my view, Daniel. We saw some polls like the Yugov poll suggesting that a result like this was possible, but not many people, I think, believed that it possible. Perhaps a few people inside the Labor Brains Trust did think it was possible. I heard rumors of the Prime Minister telling journalists last week that Labour would win more than eighty seats. He's been proven right. Never in my wildest imagination did I think that was possible.
This is a stunning result for the Prime Minister and for the Australian Labor Party.
What in these very early hours of the victory. What could you possibly put that down to?
I think a number of factors that all came together at the right time for the ALP. But I think as early as January twenty twenty three, Paul Erickson, the National Secretary of the Labor Party, had identified the key problem with the coalition and that was Peter Dutton himself, and I think they started to work out how they would showcase that to their advantage as best they could. We saw a bit of a test run in the
Dunkley by election in twenty twenty three. They ran a very tight campaign that was very focused on Peter Dutton and his unpopularity. It worked for them and they've just hammered that home.
So when we're talking about the scope of the victory, Jason, what seats in particular surprised you that Labor was able to claim victory in well?
Right throughout this campaign I have been hearing from Liberal Party strategists that they were expecting to make big gains in traditional labor stronghold seats like where were Whitlam in New South Wales, Hawk in Victoria, Gorton in Victoria, this kind of traditional safe labor territory, and Labor has increased their majorities in those seats and held on to them very comfortably. And I think This is a huge blow for the Liberal Party strategists that were.
That were going after these seats hard.
In a big way. We saw Peter Dutton campaigning in Melton in Victoria last Sunday and he was championing that fact that here is a Liberal leader in Melton of all places, and they suggested that they had a big chance to win that seat. But not only did they not win it, they suffered a swing against them, and I think that shows that the Liberal Party has deep problems.
And then there are the seats that Labor has picked up unexpectedly, like Bradden in Tasmania, a massive swing to the Labor Party in Bradon bridget Archer, the Liberal moderate who's held on to the marginal seat of Bass for so long, has been completely wiped off the electoral map. Yere other seats in Queensland like Petree, Likeheart, seats that we never thought the Labor Party could win. And of course the biggest prize of all, the seat of Dixon,
Peter Dutton's seat Ali France. It's her third time trying to win this seat. She's finally prevailed and Peter Dutton is no longer a member of Parliament. It's extraordinary that this could.
Happen, coming up after the break. What Peter Dutton's loss means for the future of the Liberal Party.
Well, tonight's not denight that we wanted for the Liberal Party, or for our coalition, or adeed for our country. But we've worked hard every day over the course of the last three years to do our best for our amazing country. One of the great.
Honors, Jason. As we know, Peter Dutton lost his seat. So let's talk about his campaign. How did you rate it?
Well, he ran a terrible campaign. It's an absolutely devastating result for the Liberal Party. I can't think of a time when an opposition leader has ever lost their seat, especially up against a first term government. So it's a catastrophic defeat for the Liberal Party and Peter Dutton must wear the blame for that. He just hasn't done enough work to get the Liberal Party even within striking distance
for the next election. This puts the Liberal Party back at least you would think another two terms, and no one saw that coming. And I think the Liberal Party really does have an existential crisis facing it now. Is this a party that can get back into government? It's an open question right now, because they have been completely wiped out in Victoria. They've suffered massive swings against them
in Queensland, this is their stronghold. They've lost seats in New South Wales that no one ever dreamt that they could lose, seats like Banks, which is held by David Coleman, Hughes held by Jenny Ware even thought that it was possible that people like that could lose their seats. Michael Sooker in Victoria's lost his seat. Keith Wallahan in Victoria's lost his seat. This is the sort of the future of the Liberal Party here and they have been completely out. It's a devastating result for them.
So we're too now for the Liberal Party, for the coalition. I mean, it's a devastating result. The future generations of leaders have been wiped out. Any speculation or any early discussion about who might take over the party from here.
Well, I think Dan teen has held his seat in the rural Victorian seat of Wan and I think Dan ten is going to be a contender for the Liberal leadership. He's very experienced, he's got quite a level head on him. I think he's quite presentable, so I think he'll be a contender. I think Andrew Hasty in Western Australia is going to be a contender, assuming of course, that he holds his seat. We assume that he will. I think Andrew Hasty is a very talented politician. He's got a
big future ahead of him. I'm sure that he will consider putting up his hand. Why I say consider is that he's quite an inexperienced politician and he might decide that he's not ready to put up his hand. And then you have Angus Taylor, of course in New South Wales, and I think Angus Taylor would be the favorite to probably win the leadership. The problem is, Angus Taylor is not that popular with his colleagues and he's not that popular with voters.
But he might be the right.
Person to take the Liberal Party through the next year or two years, whether he's the person that leads the party to the next election. If of course he wins the leadership, I would think he might struggle to lead the party through a full term, given how unpopular he is and how unskilled he is at the art of politics.
Jason, everyone thought that Victoria was a wild card in this election and that results could go either way. A lot if people believe they would go towards the coalition. What happened in Victoria tonight.
The Liberal Party was wiped out in Victoria. I can't really think that the Liberal Party holds any of the Metropolitan Melbourne seats. These used to be the jewels in the crown of the Liberal Party. Robert Menzies, of course, is from Victoria. The party founder from Victoria. Now hold a seat in the whole state. So a real crisis there for the Liberal Party, and so unexpected given that Cinder Allen, the Labor Premier in Victoria, has seen to
be weighing down the Labor brand there. But that proved to be a complete mirage and it had no impact on the campaign. In fact, they've gone backwards in Victoria. So I think they have to completely rethink the strategy there. The other thing I'd say about the Liberal Party's campaign is that in the Dunkly by election, what we saw was from the coalition a heavy emphasis on crime. But crime is a state issue. Didn't cut through in the Dunkey by election, and it certainly did not cut through
in the federal election. And we heard Peter Dutton and all of his leading frontbenches repeatedly come back to this issue of crime rising crime, But I think voters know it's got nothing to do with the federal government. It's a state issue. And I don't know why the Liberals keep banging that drum because it is a loser for them, and they lost big on that issue tonight.
I think. So I haven't been around so many happy people before in my life, Jason. Things were getting pretty loose up there. How do you think things are going to play out into the night and beyond.
I think it's going to get a lot looser tonight. People are going to have a lot more of this elbow pale ale that's been handed out for free in the room. There quite a nice beer. I have to say, it's got a portrait of a very game. The Prime Minister said he talked about going back to work tomorrow.
From tomorrow tomorrow back at work. Maybe not everyone here and that's probably for the best.
Enjoy tonight, but tomorrow the work on the second term starts, and so I think all attention will now turn to well, who gets what jobs in the new ministry. The Prime Minister signal during the campaign that there was likely to be a significant revamp of the ministry. There's a lot of talented people on that backbench who are going to be looking for a promotion. And then, of course, I think the more interesting story is going to be, well,
what happens to the coalition. They obviously have to elect a new leader and they have to work out what went wrong, What policies are they going to keep, which ones are they going to drop. I think the first policy that they're going to be asked about is this nuclear policy, and whoever takes over the leadership of the party's going to have to make a decision I think
very early as to whether to dump that policy. There will be huge pressure on the Liberal leader to do exactly that, because clearly this policy has been a huge drag on the Liberal vote and I think they'll have to dump that pretty quickly. And then what happens to the whole climate change was I think the Liberal Party is going to have to decide once and for all whether it does support the energy transition to net zero.
They're going to have to get serious about it. The climate change policy has been completely repudiated, So some difficult times ahead I think for the coalition.
Jason, thank you so much for your time.
Thanks Daniel,