From 1h ago 01.43 EDT Size of Labor majority remains unclear, with 16 seats still in doubt Josh Butler Labor has won the election, but the size of its majority in the House of Representatives remains unclear. There are a number of seats still to be decided and the counts are progressing slowly. The ABC’s election results show 16 seats are still in doubt.

The Australian Electoral Commission hasn’t officially declared any seats yet, but says Labor is leading in 86, the Coalition leading in 40, independents in 11, Bob Katter in his seat and Rebekha Sharkie in hers; another two seats are too close to attribute, and in nine seats, the two-candidate-preferred count is still being calculated. The AEC also says 22 seats are “close”. Goldstein independent MP Zoe Daniel is ahead by a sliver according to the latest counting.

Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian If you’re a political tragic (like us) and you’ve been watching the results tick over, you might have seen some of the numbers jump around wildly. In some of the seats, that’s because the AEC has “realigned” the two-party vote, after an unexpected challenger became one of the two most popular candidates, meaning the AEC is having to redo its calculations about how to allocate preferences. Some of the closest seats include Longman, Goldstein and Bullwinkel, where the vote is currently 50.05 to 49.95, or separated by about 100 votes.

Liberal Tim Wilson is currently 95 votes behind the independent Zoe Daniel in Goldstein; Labor’s Trish Cook leads the Liberals by 85 votes in the new WA seat of Bullwinkel; and LNP’s Terry Young is ahead of Labor in Longman by 102 votes. It might be some time before we get those results, as well as in the seats of Bradfield, Kooyong and Wills. Share Updated at 01.56 EDT 4m ago 02.45 EDT Re-elected Curtin MP Kate Chaney says independents don’t need to become a formal voting bloc “at this point” The re-elected member for Curtin, Kate Chaney, says she and the other teal independents and crossbenchers in the lower house don’t need to become a “more formalised voting bloc”.

Labor has again secured a majority in the house of representatives, meaning it doesn’t need to negotiate with crossbenchers to pass legislation in that chamber of parliament. Asked about the role of the crossbench during an interview on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Chaney said: I don’t think there is any need at this point to become a more formalised voting bloc. The role I can play now is much the same as the role in the last parliament and that is to look at everything on the merits and represent the values of my electorate and keep submissions on the agenda that the major parties would rather sweep under the carpet.

Having those voices in parliament, have more voices in parliament that can speak up without being constrained by a party structure means we have richer discussions about the big challenges we’re facing a country. I have more potential to influence legislation by having a constructive working relationship with the government than my electorate would if it was represented by a Coalition backbencher. Share Updated at 02.46 EDT 14m ago 02.34 EDT Labor worked for two years to stage Queensland comeback, says Watt Watt says Labor worked hard on campaigning in Queensland “for some time” to stage a comeback in his home state.

Labor has picked up a slew of seats in Queensland, including Petrie north of Brisbane and Leichhardt, where it defeated the Liberal National party. Labor’s Ali France also won Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson, becoming the first person to unseat a federal opposition leader at an election. Labor also won back two Brisbane seats that it lost to the Greens in the 2022 election.

Speaking on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Watt acknowledged 2022 had not been a good year for Labor in Queensland and said the candidates, sitting MPs and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had all put in significant “time and effort” to reverse that trend. He said: If you go back to the 2019 election, federally we got thumped in Queensland, lost a lot of seats, a very low primary vote, lost a second Senate seat for the first time in decades. [We] went back further in the last election in 2022 and recognised we needed to make a bigger contribution … and frankly to retain government federally, we have needed to win seats in Queensland, so we have been applying ourselves for some time.

I looked back at my Facebook posts yesterday and it was two years ago almost to the day we began campaigning in some of the Greens-held seats in Queensland. It has taken a lot of hard work [and it] has not been an overnight success. Watt also said people in Queensland could “differentiate between state and federal issues”, given the LNP won the most recent state election off Labor.

Share Updated at 02.48 EDT 31m ago 02.18 EDT Labor not given credit for ambition of election agenda – Watt Labor senator Murray Watt has denied his party has not been ambitious and says the re-elected Albanese government intends “to live up to” its campaign promises. Watt, a cabinet minister who most recently held the employment and workplace relations portfolios, has been interviewed on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program. The Queensland senator denied the Albanese government had not been ambitious in its first term, pointing to wages growth: I know there is commentary around we can now be ambitious and we have not been ambitious before, and I think is completely wrong.

I think the agenda we took to the election was much more ambitious than it is given credit for. The idea we can get back to a situation in Australia where 90% of Australians can get a bulk-billed GP appointment is huge in terms of cost of living. It may not be exciting in terms of headlines but it makes a huge difference to people’s lives, so [that is] what we will focus on.

Share Updated at 02.33 EDT 43m ago 02.06 EDT Benita Kolovos Premier maintains Loop a decisive issue for Labor in Melbourne While Allan has credited the Suburban Rail Loop with Labor’s federal election gains in Melbourne’s east, some within her own party aren’t convinced. Labor sources told Guardian Australia the project wasn’t a decisive issue for voters, arguing people could clearly distinguish between state and federal responsibilities. But Allan on Monday rejected that suggestion: If you speak to locals, if you spend any time out and about on the ground in local communities, the Suburban Rail Loop was being talked about.

It was being talked about on doors. It was being talked about on the streets … It was understood there was a Labor government and a Labor team that were backing the Suburban Rail Loop and a Liberal outfit that wanted to cut it. Share Updated at 02.11 EDT 43m ago 02.05 EDT Benita Kolovos Allan seizes on Labor’s success in Melbourne’s east to propel Suburban Rail Loop The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has used Labor’s strong showing in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs at the federal election to push forward the state’s signature transport project, the Suburban Rail Loop.

Labor not only held Aston but also took Deakin and Menzies off the Liberals on Saturday – with the three electorates all along the proposed 90km underground train line from Cheltenham to Werribee. Allan has described the result as proof of strong support for the rail project and announced on Monday that major construction has now begun at the Clarinda worksite, with tunnelling set to start next year. Four tunnel boring machines will be used – two heading toward Glen Waverley and two toward Cheltenham.

Excavation is also halfway complete at a second site in Burwood, where another machine will be installed to begin tunnelling westward. The premier said more than 3,000 workers are already on the job, with trains expected to run by 2035. Allan told reporters: If you live in this community, like so many others, you understand that as you welcome more people who live in your community … [you have] got to get in and invest in big rail projects like this one that absolutely shifts more people on to rail, just like what the Metro Tunnel is going to do later this year when it opens.

Share Updated at 02.09 EDT 1h ago 01.43 EDT Size of Labor majority remains unclear, with 16 seats still in doubt Josh Butler Labor has won the election, but the size of its majority in the House of Representatives remains unclear. There are a number of seats still to be decided and the counts are progressing slowly. The ABC’s election results show 16 seats are still in doubt.

The Australian Electoral Commission hasn’t officially declared any seats yet, but says Labor is leading in 86, the Coalition leading in 40, independents in 11, Bob Katter in his seat and Rebekha Sharkie in hers; another two seats are too close to attribute, and in nine seats, the two-candidate-preferred count is still being calculated. The AEC also says 22 seats are “close”. View image in fullscreen Goldstein independent MP Zoe Daniel is ahead by a sliver according to the latest counting.

Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian If you’re a political tragic (like us) and you’ve been watching the results tick over, you might have seen some of the numbers jump around wildly. In some of the seats, that’s because the AEC has “realigned” the two-party vote, after an unexpected challenger became one of the two most popular candidates, meaning the AEC is having to redo its calculations about how to allocate preferences. Some of the closest seats include Longman, Goldstein and Bullwinkel, where the vote is currently 50.05 to 49.95, or separated by about 100 votes.

Liberal Tim Wilson is currently 95 votes behind the independent Zoe Daniel in Goldstein; Labor’s Trish Cook leads the Liberals by 85 votes in the new WA seat of Bullwinkel; and LNP’s Terry Young is ahead of Labor in Longman by 102 votes. It might be some time before we get those results, as well as in the seats of Bradfield, Kooyong and Wills. Share Updated at 01.56 EDT 1h ago 01.22 EDT Albanese has ‘very warm’ conversation with Trump Earlier today, Anthony Albanese said he had a “very warm” conversation with the US president, Donald Trump, about tariffs and Aukus following Labor’s election win.

Albanese also foreshadowed an in-person meeting with Trump. Trump, meanwhile, told reporters in the US that he was “very friendly with” Albanese and said he had “no idea” who Peter Dutton was. Our multimedia team has prepared this clip of Trump’s full remarks: 0:43 Trump says he is 'very friendly' with Albanese but has 'no idea' who ran against him – video Share Updated at 01.33 EDT 2h ago 01.03 EDT Catie McLeod Hi.

I hope you’ve had a good day so far. I’ll be with you on the blog until this evening. Share 2h ago 01.01 EDT Stephanie Convery That’s all from me today.

I’m handing over to my esteemed colleague Catie McLeod now, who’ll take you through the rest of the afternoon’s news. Share Updated at 01.06 EDT 2h ago 00.29 EDT Earlier, we brought you comments from the prime minister discussing his conversation with Donald Trump. Here’s footage of that press conference.

1:25 Newly re-elected Australian PM Albanese says he had 'warm' conversation with Donald Trump – video Share 3h ago 00.09 EDT Caitlin Cassidy Education union calls on government to fix teacher shortages The Australian Education Union has congratulated the Albanese government on its “historic election result”, while cautioning there is “more to do” to resolve teacher workforce shortages and invest in public education. The AEU ran a For Every Child campaign in the lead-up to the election, urging voters to back Labor as a result of its commitment to fully fund public schools. Its federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said Anthony Albanese’s “no one held back, no one left behind” messaging “captures the very essence of public education and reflects what teachers and education support staff work for every day”: We acknowledge the significant steps the Albanese government has already taken to address funding inequality in public education and to support Australia’s teachers.

But there is still work to do to resolve Australia’s teaching workforce shortages and to invest in providing high quality teaching and learning facilities for public education. Meanwhile, Independent Schools Australia, the peak body for the sector, said the election result offered Labor a clear mandate, as well as a clear responsibility. The body’s chief executive, Graham Catt, said its School Choice Counts election campaign – rolled out in the seats of Melbourne, Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith, where the Greens were hoping to hold or pick up seats – demonstrated independent school families were “not a political afterthought”: They are taxpayers, voters and active members of their communities –and their voices were heard.

This is just the beginning of a new movement for fairness, choice and respect in school education. The message is clear: Australians don’t want the blame game. They want a fair go for every student, in every school and their families.

Share Updated at 00.25 EDT 3h ago 23.55 EDT Caitlin Cassidy University groups urge PM to address inequitable degree fees Higher education bodies have congratulated Anthony Albanese on regaining office while urging Labor to use its second term to urgently address the inequitable pricing of degrees resulting from the job-ready graduates (JRG) scheme. The scheme, introduced by the Morrison government, reduced the overall government contribution to degrees and increased fees for some courses, including humanities, to fund cuts incentivising students to study teaching, nursing, maths, science and engineering. Luke Sheehy, the chief executive of Universities Australia, the peak body for the sector, said the government had made “good progress” on the Universities Accord’s recommendations, commissioned and handed down in Labor’s first term.

But we must now focus on replacing the job-ready graduates package and funding university research properly. View image in fullscreen The federal government is being urged to reform the job-ready graduates scheme. Photograph: David F/Getty Images Sheehy said universities also needed clarity around the commonwealth’s plan for international students after its proposed cap was voted down, adding the sector needed “certainty and stability”.

The Innovative Research Universities (IRU), which represents seven universities focused on equity, said it strongly supported the Albanese government’s increased investment in public education and needs-based funding in higher education. But it said an “urgent priority” must be reform of the JRG scheme. The IRU has prepared evidence-based modelling of options for JRG reform and we are ready to work with government to make sure that the cost of higher education is not turning students away.

The Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN), which represents six universities known for their focus on technology and innovation, said it was committed to collaborating on key Labor priorities, including diversifying the student body and embracing new opportunities in the Asia-Pacific. Share Updated at 00.14 EDT 3h ago 23.45 EDT Update on the neck-and-neck contests More on the seats that were too close to call this morning: There are just 104 votes between the frontrunners in the Queensland seat of Longman: Labor’s Rhiannyn Douglas and MP Terry Young are still battling it out. Douglas was leading this morning but Young has taken over in the hours since.

There are 7,515 pre-poll and postal vote envelopes yet to be processed. Still in Queensland, and in Ryan, Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown, the Coalition’s Maggie Forrest and Labor’s Rebecca Hack are all still in the running for the seat. Forrest is ahead on first preference votes but only 799 votes separate Watson-Brown and Hack in second and third place at the moment.

The candidate who winds up third, and whose preferences will then flow upward, will determine the winner. In Fremantle, which has been one of Labor’s safest seats, MP Josh Wilson is under threat from independent Kate Hulett, who the AEC says is currently 541 votes ahead. And in Bean in the ACT, independent Jessie Price is just 157 votes behind incumbent Labor MP David Smith.

Smith previously held the seat by more than 12%. Share Updated at 23.53 EDT 3h ago 23.41 EDT Predicted: the poll winners in some tight races Nick Evershed With counting resumed today, including a start on some of the new two-candidate-preferred counts, we’re making some seat projection calls on a few electorates that looked tricky on the weekend: Cowper – Nationals to retain the seat Fadden – LNP to retain the seat La Trobe – Liberals to retain the seat Fowler – Dai Le to retain the seat Curtin – Kate Chaney to retain the seat Griffith – ALP to win from Greens Brisbane – ALP to win from Greens In Griffith and Brisbane, the new two-candidate-preferred count has begun today. In Brisbane, rather than Greens and LNP in the final two, as it was in 2022, it will be Labor v LNP, which Labor should win handily on Greens voter preferences.

In Griffith, the final two are Labor and Greens, rather than Greens and LNP as in 2022, and Labor should win over Greens on LNP voter preferences. View image in fullscreen Teal independent Kate Chaney is projected to retain her Western Australian seat of Curtin. Photograph: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images Share Updated at 00.20 EDT 3h ago 23.28 EDT Luca Ittimani Westpac chief says Labor win ‘very positive’ for Australia Labor’s election victory offers “an enormous positive for the country”, providing consistency and certainty for businesses and lenders, the Westpac chief executive, Anthony Miller, has said.

The continuity of re-election stood in contrast to the uncertainty and volatility faced by other countries, Miller told investors and media after releasing Westpac’s half-yearly report. He said: That certainty that the Labor party has provided over the last couple of years in government, and now re-elected, is an incredibly powerful outcome and a very positive one for the country … [It] puts us in a very good position globally to attract capital and talent to this country. And so I think consistency and certainty and just getting things done methodically, as opposed to boldly going in different and new directions, is something to be thoughtful about.

Miller said the continuity would give the government more opportunities to improve productivity, pointing to the treasurer Jim Chalmers’ comments about focusing on productivity reform in the second term. Miller flagged the energy transition, critical minerals and rare earths, and expanded defence forces including Aukus as potential drivers of economic growth in Labor’s second term. There are so many opportunities for them that I think it’s a very positive outlook for the next few years, notwithstanding the global uncertainty that we’re operating in.

Share Updated at 00.51 EDT 4h ago 23.18 EDT Dan Jervis-Bardy Labor set to increase Senate seats Labor is expected to further grow its numbers in the Senate, allowing it to pass legislation with only the support of the Greens in a power shift that could sideline previously influential crossbenchers such as David Pocock. The Coalition’s election disaster looks likely to claim another casualty, with the Nationals’ deputy leader, Perin Davey, poised to lose her New South Wales Senate seat. Despite the Greens losing two of their four seats in the lower house, the party leader, Adam Bandt, said the Senate results should encourage Labor to pursue a bolder, more progressive policy agenda in its second term, including expanding Medicare, free childcare and banning new fossil fuel projects.

Read the full story here: Election count continues: Labor poised to grow Senate numbers allowing it to pass legislation with only Greens support Read more Share Updated at 00.55 EDT 4h ago 23.02 EDT Linda Reynolds blames Liberals' male dominance for poll failure and backs Ley to lead Outgoing Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has thrown her support behind a potential leadership tilt by the current deputy leader, Sussan Ley, while saying the party’s election campaign had been “a comprehensive failure”. She told ABC Perth radio: You can see through successive reviews in federal and state in terms of where we have taken the wrong turn, but we haven’t comprehensively understood those lessons and we certainly haven’t implemented the reforms that are needed. It was a comprehensive failure.

She partly attributed the failure of the party to speak to voters to its male dominance, and failure to act on the findings of reviews that recommended changes that would increase the involvement of women in the party. Reynolds said: Ten years ago I was part of a review into gender … and we recommended targets and how to get there without quotas. That’s been the Liberal party policy for 10 years but it’s just sat on a shelf.

We do have to have the hard conversations now about how we become more gender-balanced but also a broader diversity. There was also a strong religious right flank of the party in WA, Reynolds said, which didn’t resonate with or represent mainstream Australia. Reynolds said she would support the current deputy leader, Sussan Ley, to replace Peter Dutton as leader, if Ley should nominate, saying she would be “a great and a very healing and receptive leader for our party”.

View image in fullscreen Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley at a Liberal rally in January. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP Share Updated at 00.59 EDT