Monique Ryan walks back claim of victory in Kooyong
Benita Kolovos
Independent MP for Kooyong Monique Ryan says her seat is “too close to call” despite claiming victory on Saturday night.
In a statement she posted on Facebook this morning, Ryan is now saying it will take some days, even weeks, before the final count will be known:
The election result in Kooyong is too close to call at this point. It will take some days – possibly some weeks – for the outcome to be confirmed. Thank you Kooyong, for your support. Thanks to my team, and my family. Thanks to all of the Kooyong volunteers for your extraordinary hard work. And thanks to the AEC workers who are still dealing with a whole lot of ballots.
It comes after Goldstein independent, Zoe Daniel, also issued a similar statement on Sunday as her lead on opponent, Liberal MP Tim Wilson, had shrunk from 1,800 votes in the morning to 90 by the afternoon.
Both Daniel and Ryan took to the stage of their respective election night parties to claim victory.
“This has been incredibly hard, but we did it,” Daniel told her supporters, who gathered at Elwood Bowls Club.
Ryan told supporters at the Auburn Hotel that “despite the slings and arrows” of a “tough” campaign they looked to have “overcome the Brethren” – a nod to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, who had been campaigning for her opponent, Liberal Amelia Hamer.
Standing behind her, Ryan’s family held up a sign that read: “Kooyong, we did it!”
Key events
Catie McLeod
Albanese says student debt reduction is first priority
Albanese says the first item on his government’s policy agenda is a “20% cut in student debt”.
Late last year, Albanese promised that a re-elected Labor government would wipe about $16bn worth of debt in what an election policy sold as a cost-of-living measure for young Australians.
The 20% reduction would not capped and would also apply to VET loans and apprenticeship support loans.
According to government figures, released at the time the policy was announced, a university graduate with an average debt of $27,600 will save $5,520.
Speaking to reporters this morning, Albanese said he expected the legislation to pass before the start of the next financial year:
I’m very confident we have a mandate for that. We can’t have been clearer.
If the senate gets in the way of that, then they’ll receive the same response the housing spokespeople for the Liberal party and the Greens got on Saturday.
With these last comments, Albanese was referring to the Liberal party’s former housing spokesperson, Michael Sukkar, and the Greens former housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, who both lost their seats in parliament on Saturday night.
Albanese was also asked whether, given the size of the mandate Labor had won, he was tempted to consider changes to the taxation or superannuation systems.
He replied:
We’re not getting ahead of ourselves.
Albanese says had ‘warm and positive conversation’ with Trump
Catie McLeod
Albanese has expanded on his conversation with Trump and said they will meet in person “at some time in the future”.
In response to questions from journalists at parliament house about his discussion with the US president, Albanese said:
I had a warm and positive conversation with President Donald Trump just a short while ago when I was at the Lodge.
And I thank him for his very warm message of congratulations.
We talked about Aukus and tariffs. We’ll engage with each other on a face-to-face basis at some time in the future.
But it was … very warm. I thank him for reaching out in such a positive way as well.
The prime minister would not be drawn on whether Trump made any promises about his administration’s wide-ranging tariff regime, which includes Australia.
Albanese said:
I won’t go into all of the personal comments that he made. But it was very generous in his personal warmth and praise towards myself.
He … expressed the desire to continue to work with me in the future.
Albanese says he spoke to Trump and other world leaders after poll win
Catie McLeod
The prime minister says he hopes to earn Australians’ trust “on an ongoing basis” and that he has spoken to a range of world leaders after winning the election.
Anthony Albanese is addressing the media at Parliament House in his first press conference since Labor’s landslide win returned the party to government with an increased majority.
Albanese said he had spoken with leaders including the US president, Donald Trump, and the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney.
Albanese said Carney had invited him to attend the next conference of the G7 economic forum in June and that he had accepted.
Australia is not a G7 member but has been invited to take part in its conferences in the past.
Albanese did not elaborate on his conversation with Trump.
Monique Ryan walks back claim of victory in Kooyong
Benita Kolovos
Independent MP for Kooyong Monique Ryan says her seat is “too close to call” despite claiming victory on Saturday night.
In a statement she posted on Facebook this morning, Ryan is now saying it will take some days, even weeks, before the final count will be known:
The election result in Kooyong is too close to call at this point. It will take some days – possibly some weeks – for the outcome to be confirmed. Thank you Kooyong, for your support. Thanks to my team, and my family. Thanks to all of the Kooyong volunteers for your extraordinary hard work. And thanks to the AEC workers who are still dealing with a whole lot of ballots.
It comes after Goldstein independent, Zoe Daniel, also issued a similar statement on Sunday as her lead on opponent, Liberal MP Tim Wilson, had shrunk from 1,800 votes in the morning to 90 by the afternoon.
Both Daniel and Ryan took to the stage of their respective election night parties to claim victory.
“This has been incredibly hard, but we did it,” Daniel told her supporters, who gathered at Elwood Bowls Club.
Ryan told supporters at the Auburn Hotel that “despite the slings and arrows” of a “tough” campaign they looked to have “overcome the Brethren” – a nod to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, who had been campaigning for her opponent, Liberal Amelia Hamer.
Standing behind her, Ryan’s family held up a sign that read: “Kooyong, we did it!”
Climate group says Dutton’s ‘nuclear fantasy was a major turn-off’
Australians want “a credible plan to cut climate pollution” and voted for it on Saturday, the Climate Council chief executive has said.
The organisation’s own analysis of the election results showed that Labor’s two-party-preferred vote increased in seats where there was considerable debate about offshore wind farms, the Council said in a release today.
Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said:
Voters have sent a resounding message: no party can expect to govern this country without a credible plan to cut climate pollution. Peter Dutton’s scheme to delay climate action with a nuclear fantasy was a major turn-off – particularly for women and undecided voters. Instead, in overwhelming numbers, people voted for Labor’s cleaner renewable-powered future backed by storage, including home batteries.
Climate denial and delay are now politically toxic in Australia. This is a lesson that the Coalition ought to have learned in 2022, when a record number of climate champions knocked out seven of their MPs. The 2025 election results show this is now a political norm: voters won’t consider you fit for government unless you have sensible policies that pass the climate barometer. Aussie voters expect, and deserve, much better than Trumpian attacks on science and climate denialism.
We mentioned earlier that the Greens are closely watching the count in Wills, where Labor MP Peter Khalil is facing a challenge from Greens candidate Samantha Ratnam. Khalil is currently ahead 51.6% to 48.4% – some 2,813 votes separating the candidates.
Latest election count as some seats go down to the wire
The electorate of Kooyong is another seat where the election outcome is still yet to be determined, where “teal” independent MP Monique Ryan is being challenged by Liberal Amelia Hamer. Ryan leads with 51.03% of the vote to Hamer’s 48.97%.
Over in Bradfield, in New South Wales, 905 votes separate independent Nicolette Boele and Liberal Gisele Kapterian. Bradfield was formerly a safe seat for the Coalition.
In the Western Australian seat of Bullwinkel, Labor’s Trish Cook leads Liberal Matt Moran by just 85 votes. Preferences from the Nationals, who are in third place, will likely decide the outcome there.
– With AAP
Natasha May
Health minister lashes out at ‘misleading campaign run by the big pathology companies’
The health minister, Mark Butler, has told Adelaide’s 5AA Radio his priorities for the portfolio this second term are turning bulk billing around for people without a concession card and rolling out more urgent care clinics.
Butler was also asked about signage within pathology services that say from July 1, the government is cutting $356m from pathology services, halving the Medicare rebate for vitamin B12 and urine tests.
Butler said:
This is a pretty dishonest campaign being run by the very big, big, big pathology companies. We implemented some changes that were the product of expert advice, expert clinical advice. There is a sort of expert group of doctors and clinicians who advise the government, whether they’re Labor or Liberal, about how the Medicare schedule works, and they provided some advice to try and cut down what they describe as unnecessary tests.
Now, there’s been a pretty misleading campaign run by the big pathology companies saying people who have a clinical need for this type of testing are not going to get it through Medicare. They will. There’s no question about that.
And what the big pathology companies also fail to put into their poster is that for the first time in many, years, I’ve provided indexation, or rebate increases for pathology tests, which they’ve been complaining about for some time. I think it has been more than 20 years since the Medicare rebates had been increased for pathology.
Trump says he is ‘very friendly’ with Albanese and has ‘no idea’ who ran against him
The US president, Donald Trump, has commented on the Australian election, saying Albanese has been “very respectful” in their dealings together but he had “no idea” who his opponent was.
Trump refused to answer questions about whether “the Trump effect” was responsible for the Liberal defeat.
Trump told reporters:
Albanese I’m very friendly with … I can only say that he’s been very, very nice to me, very respectful to me. I have no idea who the other person is that ran against him, and you know we’ve had a very good relationship.
Chalmers says it would be ‘extraordinary’ if Angus Taylor was rewarded with Coalition leadership
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been speaking to reporters this morning too, issuing a caustic assessment of the potential tilt for Liberal leadership by Angus Taylor.
Chalmers said:
I think it will be extraordinary if Angus Taylor was rewarded for one of the worst performances that I have ever seen. It would be very strange if Angus Taylor escaped the blame for the Liberal party debacle on Saturday.
Peter Dutton has stood up and taken some responsibility for that outcome. It is time for Angus Taylor to do the same. It would be extraordinary if Angus Taylor was rewarded with a promotion after the diabolical contribution he made to this history-making Coalition defeat.
Greens do not regret focusing on climate action and Gaza, Bandt says
Asked if the Greens didn’t focus enough on climate and focused too much on Gaza, Bandt said:
We were the only ones talking about real action on climate change and calling on the government to stop opening new coal and gas mines …
[On Gaza], we were very clear and had been clear from the beginning that we wanted to see an end to the invasion and an end to the occupation and an end to the bombs being dropped on children. We had people coming up to us regularly on polling booths saying, thank you for being the only voice talking about peace and humanity.
Labor ‘the only barrier to getting dental into Medicare’, Bandt says
Labor has been elected into a strong position in government, Adam Bandt says, but that means they cannot “blame other individual senators” for not being able to get legislation through.
Bandt said:
I congratulate the prime minister on his campaign and the strong position that they have got in government at the moment but what it means is that, with the Greens in sole balance of power in the Senate at the moment, the government can’t blame other individual senators for not being able to get things through.
The only barrier to getting dental into Medicare now and passing it through the parliament is Labor. The only obstacle to making childcare free is Labor. The only obstacle to stopping new coal and gas mines from being opened is Labor. We stand ready in the Senate to make this the most progressive parliament that Australia has seen.
Adam Bandt ‘confident’ of retaining seat in Melbourne
Greens leader Adam Bandt said he is “confident” of retaining his seat in Melbourne but that the crashing Liberal vote has played out differently for the Greens than it has for Labor, especially in Queensland where they lost two seats.
Bandt said:
When there is a big shift from Liberal to Labor, it has flow-through consequences [for the Greens].
We expect we’ll have between one and four seats in parliament once the final votes are counted. We feel confident in Melbourne, we are feeling vey good in Ryan and Wills but there are a lot more votes to count before we have a final determination about those.
He characterised the new makeup of parliament as likely to have a number of “blue Labor” seats, where Labor MPs have been elected off the back of Liberal preferences.
A number of House of Representatives seats still in play
There are a number of seats in the House of Representatives that are still too close to call this morning.
We mentioned the Greens were out and about with a show of positivity despite losing two seats in Queensland. The party is also waiting for a definitive outcome on two seats in Victoria, including in Melbourne, leader Adam Bandt’s electorate.
Bandt is in danger of losing his seat to Labor’s Sarah Witty. We understand he’s about to speak to the media, too, so we’ll bring you that as soon as we can.
Josh Taylor
Home affairs department has let staff use Signal since Covid lockdowns, documents show
The home affairs department began allowing staff to use Signal in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and even advised employees how to turn on disappearing messages, documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.
The use of the app by government officials in Australia has come into focus after the global fallout from revelations that top US officials discussed operational details of a plan to strike Yemen in a Signal group chat that accidentally included the Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg.
Signal is known for its privacy and disappearing message features. An American government watchdog group is suing the US officials, arguing that using an app with disappearing messages could put it in breach of legal obligations around record retention.
Read the full exclusive story here:
Benita Kolovos
What the federal election result means for Victorian Labor
If anyone is as happy as Anthony Albanese right now, it’s Jacinta Allan. As the federal election results rolled in on Saturday night, one of the biggest surprises came in Victoria – where Labor defied months of grim predictions to strengthen its grip on the state.
Despite relentless commentary about Allan’s unpopularity and the supposed drag she posed on the Labor vote – not just from the Liberals but by her own federal colleagues – the state swung even harder to the party than it did in 2022.
According to Poll Bludger, Labor’s two-party-preferred vote in the state sits at 54.8 to 45.2.
It’s a devastating result for the Coalition in a state they desperately needed to turn around. At best, the Liberal party could emerge with just seven out of 38 across Victoria – as many seats as their Nationals partners.
The Liberals didn’t see this coming – and neither did Labor.
Read more analysis on what the election result means for Victorian Labor here:
PM says: ‘I do feel for Peter Dutton’
More from the prime minister shooting the breeze on Triple M this morning. He said he’d had his first good night’s sleep for some months last night, after what he called “quite an astonishing outcome” on Saturday.
“I was in bed at 8 o’clock last night,” Anthony Albanese said.
Albanese said the key difference throughout the campaign was the Labor party had a positive message to sell and the opposition didn’t.
He also offered a snippet of sympathy for his opponent:
I do feel for Peter Dutton, that must have been a pretty tough night for him.
Albanese will head back to Canberra today.
Reducing Hecs debts first item on government’s agenda, Plibersek says
Tanya Plibersek has said it will be “straight back to work” for her and other members of the Labor party, reiterating that reducing Hecs debts is the first piece of legislation the party has on its agenda for the new term.
Plibersek told Seven’s Sunrise this morning:
We will be straight back to work to make sure that we are absolutely focus on bringing down the cost of living, reducing those pressures on people.
The prime minister’s already said the first legislation will be about dropping that Hecs debt on students. And longer term, we really want to make sure we return people’s faith in us. We’ll continue to work to make sure that we’ve got great services that people can rely on, that we deal with the international challenges that we’ve got.
PM promises to build on business and community relationships
Anthony Albanese has promised to make good on the relationships developed over his time in office so far, saying he is a man of his word.
In comments to Triple M this morning, the PM said:
I’ve had enormous support, and from the entire labour movement, I’ve got to say, as well, and from a whole range of people in the business community, in different communities that make up our great multicultural Australia as well, all backing us and being very supportive. I have such good relationships. There’s an advantage of being around a while and developing those friendships and that trust, so that people know I am a man of my word, and that begins here today.
