Live: ‘We need to do better’: Independent Monique Ryan says she’ll push Labor on climate

Will Zoe Daniel support a Labor minority government?

“Look, I’m keen, like everyone else, to see the numbers, but I’ve said right from the beginning that I will be an independent. I’m not going to become a member of the Labor Party. I’ve never been a member of either political party and I seek to represent my community, and that’s what I will do. But also my positions have been very clear through the campaign: Climate, prosperity, integrity and gender equality, and those are the reasons that people voted for me, so they are the priorities that an incoming Labor government needs to have a good hard think about,” she said.

Zoe Daniel said she’d be pushing the Labor Party to seek more ambitious climate change targets.

“Absolutely. I came into this campaign with a clear and stated target of 60% by 2030 and I think we need legislated targets so that the major parties don’t get wriggle room on net zero by 2050 and I think we need that to create that accountability. So, yes, I came in with a stated target of 60%. People voted for me based on that and that’s what I will argue for.”

Newly-elected Zoe Daniel praises community backing for teal independent success

Next up on the interview schedule this morning is the newly-elected member for Goldstein Zoe Daniel, a so-called teal independent who dethroned sitting Liberal MP Tim Wilson.

She says she was expecting the teal independents to be competitive given the momentum a lot of the candidates gained during the campaign.

“Not only in the seat of Goldstein by in those other seats across the country during the campaign as people recognised that there was an actual alternative in safe seats in many cases for the first time, and people really grasped that. It is a hugely positive moment, I think n our political history n the sense that this is a movement that has grown from community. It comes from the days of Cathy McGowan in Indi. Cathy is an old friend of mine. She started it, others have followed, and I sit here because a community organisation came to me and said, ‘Would you consider running as an independent?’ And the community got behind that. It is extraordinary.”

On why she thinks so many Liberal MPs were ousted:

“Because the Liberal Party lost its centre. People who would normally be small-l Liberals or who are potential swinging voters like me who sort of drift across the centre had no-one to vote for. The Liberal Party had drifted so far to the right that people didn’t feel represented. The Labor Party has had an identity crisis where it has been trying to represent the workers and the inner-city professionals, and people like me who sit in the centre and go into the polling booth and think, ‘Who on earth willal I vote for?’ All of a sudden, people like me popped up in seats and said, ‘Hey, here is an alternative. Here is someone who will be a reasonable voice, who can negotiate with both sides, who can solve problems, who can collaborate on these really important issues,’ and issues that I think people feel they haven’t had an actual voice on in a seat like mine, on climate, where they feel they weren’t being represented by the local member.”

Dai Le ‘quietly confident’ in close race with Kristina Keneally for seat of Fowler

The party’s decision to parachute in Shadow Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally appears to have backfired, with only several thousand votes separating the two.

Ms Le, the deputy mayor of Fairfield, is still holding off claiming victory, despite results showing a swing of close to 18 per cent against Labor, destroying its previous margin of 14 per cent.

“I am quietly confident I am ahead but pre-polls could make a difference,” she said.

She attributed the swing to a rejection of Senator Keneally, anger over COVID-19 lockdowns in the area and the desire for a local candidate.

“They [voters] knew Kristina Keneally as a NSW Labor party leader who led them to their most significant loss and the fact she lived in Scotland Island, even though she claims to live in Liverpool.

“A lot of people are telling me they are sick and tired of major parties, and people are telling me Kristina Keneally is not connected to this community — she has no roots here.”

‘I don’t know’, future Opposition Leader pick still unclear

David Speers: You are now the leader of a diminished moderate wing of the Liberal Party, who will you be supporting to lead the Liberal Party now?

Simon Birmingham: “David, to be perfectly honest, I don’t know. I will talk to my colleagues over the coming days and talk to them about the types of issues we have just discussed and what I think is necessary for us to rebuild, to re-establish the party in the places where every lost support, and I will be looking to make sure that whom ever takes on that role understands the task ahead and hopefully has a clear enough picture of how to go about that task and particularly how to ensure that we bring into the Liberal fold more Australian women and ensure they are pre-selected in far greater numbers so they we can ensure our party better reflects the reality of modern Australia within our rank.”

When he was asked if Peter Dutton is the only option for who will take over the leadership position, Birmingham says he’s not sure and that he’ll be speaking to his colleagues about it over the next few days.

Birmingham concedes Coalition lost votes from women

On the back of talking about action on climate change, Simon Birmingham conceded going into the future the Coalition needs to focus on winning back votes from women, including a genuine approach to policies that matter to them.

“That’s only one issue that we need to heed and as I said before, the what extends into other issues more broadly of equality and gender and from there the who in particular extends into ensuring that as a party, we go back and regroup around all of those who Menzies spoke about the forgotten people and in particular we lost the professionals out of the Menziesian script and we need to make sure we win back many more of those professionals and especially Australian women who are much more highly educated today thanks to wonderful opportunities provided by successive governments and a cohort that clearly we have failed to have represent us in sufficient numbers and we need to make sure we turn that around as well as the types of policies necessary to appeal to them.”

Should the Liberals stick with the Nationals?

Sticking on the issue of climate change for a second, David Speers has asked Simon Birmingham about the future of the Coalition with the National Party, given emissions reductions and stronger action on climate change is clearly a high priority for millions of voters.

David Speers: One of the reasons why you have been unable to embrace the higher 2030 target that you have now suggested the Liberals do need to do is the National Party, the Coalition you have with the National Party, given this election result, now you’re in opposition, should you stick with the Coalition in opposition or break apart?

Simon Birmingham: “The Coalition has served Australia very well through our history and it has served the Liberal and National Party very well. I would hope that we can continue to work together, but obviously the National Party need to – need to look at where the Liberal Party has felt this pain and reflect upon how it is that we, together, can manage to form majority government in the future and what will be necessary for us to…”

Speers: If they won’t shift…

Birmingham: “David, let’s not get too many steps ahead of ourselves right now. The Liberal Party needs to always stand for Liberal values and we need to make sure we win back voters who should hold those Liberal values, who do, I think, hold those Liberal values, hold the values of enterprise, again I reflected on the last election that where the Labor Party was open with a set of policies that were higher taxing, more interventionist, those voters stuck with us because clearly they do believe in a smaller government, they do believe in a lower taxing environment, but there are a set of other issues where this election, without the Labor opposing at least up-front that same threat, they deserted us. We have to make sure that we appeal to them and that’s got to be our first priority.”

For what it’s worth the Liberal and National Parties have been in a coalition for decades so them splitting up would be more than a big deal.

What happens today?

The AEC says today will mostly be about “logistical arrangements with only small updates to results expected on the tally room”.

“We’ll have small postal vote counts appearing in the AEC tally room throughout the day, starting from this morning,” Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said.

“Postal vote counts started on the Tuesday after election day in 2019 but we’ve brought that forward in recognition of the large volume and our ability this election to sort them earlier than in the past.

“These indicative postal vote counts early in the count period can provide an important trend for analysts.”

Coalition must commit to stronger climate action, Birmingham says 

Given climate and action on emissions reduction has been a big factor in the results last night, particularly the election of many teal independents, Simon Birmingham’s been asked if the Coalition needs to rethink its emissions reductions targets.

“Given the fact that we are looking like we will exceed that 2030 position of 26 to 28 per cent, of course, we should commit to being able to go further. We obviously are a country who has shown great leadership actually in terms of the development of renewable resources. As I have said many times before, and it does remain a fact – our emissions exceed many others around the world. It should be a point of national celebration and where we can exceed our existing targets, then we should make sure that we do stretch to exceed those targets. Mindful as always, though, of the communities who we have to bring with us and the jobs that we need to protect or replace as part of that journey,” he said.

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern congratulates Anthony Albanese on election win

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she had a “warm conversation” with Anthony Albanese, adding she’s “really looking forward to formally meeting with him soon”.

“Anthony and I have had the chance to meet before and I have no doubt we’ll have a strong working relationship that will serve both countries well.

“Australia is our most important partner, our only official ally and single economic market relationship, and I believe our countries will work even more closely together in these tumultuous times.”

Ms Ardern also acknowledge the “strong working relationship” she had with Scott Morrison, saying she is confident that the “close and unique relationship between New Zealand and Australia will continue under Mr Albanese’s leadership”.

“I hope to meet Prime Minister Albanese in the near future, and look forward to working with him on a range of issues including supporting New Zealanders living in Australia, making trans-Tasman business even easier, deepening our partnership with our close friends in the Pacific, and advancing our interests on the world stage.

“Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are at our best when we work together; when we acknowledge our mutual interests, our shared values and the uniqueness of our perspectives; when we stand united as allies and whānau, recognising the strength in our diversity.”

What caused the ‘teal bath’ in safe Liberal seats?

David Speers: When it comes to the Liberals contest against the so-called teal independents, was there a particular turning point in your view that saw the Liberals lose so comprehensively all of these heartland seats?

Simon Birmingham: “David, I think there have been a number of points over time. You can go back to the same-sex marriage debate which dragged out unnecessarily long, but it should have been resolved by a simple conscience vote. I think the turning point was the failure in relation to the National Energy Guarantee that at that point, there was an opportunity for the Liberal Party to lock into a policy in relation to energy markets and climate reductions in the energy sector and to lock into it in a way that could have achieved a degree of bipartisanship and put some of these matters behind us and the failure to be able to do so at that time has caused a significant price down the track.”

“The last election we saw perhaps both a message and a masking, if you like, the message came in the seat of Warringah and the result that Tony faced there and we should have acknowledged that had broader implications than just as it related to Tony. The masking was, of course, that the very high taxing policies Labor was honest about at the last election meant that we were able to hold on in seats that perhaps had the same sentiment as Warringah, but didn’t quite go there last time. And now we’re paying the price for that.”

Speers: Where do the Liberals now need to go on this key issue of climate change?

Birmingham: “I think in terms of a response overall, we got to look at the what, the why, the who, if you like, and the what and the why are issues such as climate change where we still have to ensure that we are responsible custodians of Australia’s total national interest and that involves ensuring that we don’t simply sell away Australian jobs and industry in a hurry that causes pain to our country. But we need to make sure that Australians understand we acknowledge the science of climate change and some of us always have, but all of us must. We acknowledge the need for Australia to play a leading role in action around the world and that we get our language as well as our policies right in that space.”

Time now to hear from the outgoing Finance Minister

Time now to hear from outgoing Finance Minister Simon Birmingham who Insiders appears to have grabbed as he was about to jump on a plane back to South Australia.

Here’s his thoughts on the result last night after a few hours sleep:

“There are many interesting factors out of this election and let me start by again congratulating Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party on winning and being in a position to form government. However, you can see from the state of their primary vote that fewer than 1-in-3 Australians voted for the Labor Party. This is perhaps the weakest mandate for an incoming government in Australia’s history. It presents a challenging set of circumstances because it obviously we have lost and we had been delivered a comprehensive message from parts of the community, but we also have held on to what you would usually think would be the types of seats that precipitated a change of government, seats like Bass and Braddon, Lindsay or Longman appeared to have been held by the Liberal Party and so it’s quite a challenging set of circumstances when you then look at where we have lost and particularly traditionally heartland seats.

“That is perhaps the loudest message to the Liberal Party and it’s the one we are going to have to heed most strongly if we are to ensure that we’re in a position to be able to come back in three years’ time which given the state of the Labor vote we absolutely can if we listen, unite and get our response right.”

Barnaby Joyce: National Party has ‘held every seat’

Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce won’t say whether he will recontest the National Party’s leadership. 

He said he would let the dust settle first, and that the National Party would be fighting for a stronger voice in the Coalition after retaining all its seats. 

“I am just going to be quite clear; we have held every seat,” he said. 

Is this an opportunity to reset the relationship with China?

The final question to Richard Marles is about how a Labor government views the relationship with China given the ongoing tensions.

He’s been asked if this is a chance to “reset or repair” relations with China.

“I think it’s really important that we are getting our questions right around our regional relationships in the pacific as I have said around the hard power equation, meaning our procurements and particularly in terms of submarines, it’s fundamentally important to building Australia’s strategic space. China is going to be a challenge, it’s a point that Anthony has made and a point he’s made,” Marles said.

“I think China remains a significant challenge. And we will seek to engage in the world and in a professional and a thoughtful way, we’re obviously believers in diplomacy. But China under President Xi has sought to shape the world around it in a way we have never seen before and it does present challenges for the nation. And we need to make sure that we meet those challenges and we do that by making sure that we are getting our relationships right in the region, that we pay the Pacific the attention that it deserves which this government – this Coalition government plainly failed to do. And that we get the heart-power equation right.

“The failure in respect of the management of submarines is just about the bigest procurement failure in defence that we have seen in our country’s history. It has left us dangerously exposed in terms of the capability gap for the next generation of submarine and all of that must be address.”

Is Labor willing to shift its climate change targets if the crossbench demand it?

David Speers: With these new independents in Parliament and additional Greens in the Parliament as well, is Labor willing to shift when it comes to climate change or are you going to stick with exactly what you took to the election?

Richard Marles: “We put in place a very detailed policy at the end of last year, as detailed as any opposition has ever done, particularly in respect of climate change and energy policy. That’s what we sought a mandate for and that’s what we will take to the parliament.”

Action on climate change was a key plank of the so-called teal independents election campaigns. 

Was the result in Fowler proof Labor shouldn’t have parachuted Kristina Keneally in?

It wasn’t just the Liberal Party that lost seats last night, Labor looks set to lose at least two – one to the Greens and one to an independent in the seat of Fowler against Labor candidate Kristina Keneally.

Keneally was controversially parachuted into the seat despite the outgoing Labor MP backing a local candidate.

The ABC is projecting the independent running in the seat, Dai Le, will win.

Richard Marles‘ has been asked if Labor acknowledges that it should’ve listened to the community and let them choose their candidate.

“I think it’s easy to jump to conclusions.  Firstly, we have not conceded Fowler and let’s see how that again plays out. Whatever plays out we will look into that result in detail and the lessons from it.

“Dai Le has run a strong campaign. I have to say Kristina Keneally has been a fighter on behalf of the people of New South Wales for the entirety of her political career. She’s been enormous asset for us in the Federal Parliament. And again, fighting for her state and her community. You know, she was very excited about representing the people of Fowler given the opportunity, we have not conceded it and whatever plays out there, we will work through the lessons of it.

“Kristina Keneally has been a great servant of the Labor Party. We will continue to scrutineer the result in Fowler. We have our fingers crossed but we’ll see how that plays out.”

How will Labor work if there’s a hung parliament?

Speers: A few nuts and bolts things that need to get done pretty quickly. Firstly f Labor doesn’t get to the majority of 76 seats, Anthony Albanese has said repeatedly no deals. Does that mean you would be relying on this very large crossbench day-to-day for support on legislation or even confidence motions?

Marles: “Well, firstly, let’s see how it all plays out. I think there is a bit of counting to go, and we are hopeful that we can achieve a majority in our own right. The point that we’ve made all through the campaign is that what we are taking to the Australian people is what we will take to the parliament, so there is not going to be any deals in forming government. I would also make the point, though, that whatever happens in the House of Representatives, we absolutely know that there will be a crossbench in the Senate, as there has been throughout my political life, and working with crossbenchers is always needed to be done in order to get legislation through. 

“Now, we’re really confident that the agenda we’ve laid out we can get through the parliament, but Anthony is a person who is enormously skilled at bringing people together. We are not going to do the kind of devie sieve legislation that we’ve seen from Scott Morrison over the last decade which has been aged at wedging his opponent, but dividing the country. Anthony wants to bring the country together again and that will be reflected in the way in which we approach the parliament and we are confident that we can get the agenda through the parliament.”

Election win ‘historic moment’ for Labor

Deputy Labor Leader, and soon-to-be deputy prime minister Richard Marles is the first guest on Insiders this morning.

He’s described last night as a “historic moment” for Labor given the upheaval of the last three years.

“It has been an extraordinary 24 hours and it sounds very remarkable to me when you describe it like that, but it is a historic moment and I think Anthony Albanese’s achievement really over the last three years which has been as difficult a period in which I can remember to lead Labor, both after the grief, really, of the 2019 result, but then clearly leading us through the pandemic when the place of Oppositions is not very significant. People are focusing on the government of the day. They look to it for awe authoritative information, and when you cast back to the middle of 2020 and think that we are now in a position Anthony Albanese has just won this election, it says everything about his leadership, about the way he has positioned the party, and it is a remarkable result and an incredible credit to him.”

What kind of prime minister will Anthony Albanese be?

One of the issues that’s been touched on just now is that while there were big swings away from the Liberals, there was a “luke warm” response to Labor, with a lot of votes heading away from the major parties.

So what does that spell for Anthony Albanese and what kind of prime minister will he be as he stares down a number of issues like post-pandemic budget repair and foreign policy issues.

David Speers: What sort of Prime Minister are we going to see?

Katharine Murphy: Well, certainly in the event that Labor doesn’t get back into government in majority, we know that Anthony Albanese can handle a minority Parliament because we’ve seen him do it.

Speers: And he has a smorgasbord to choose from when it comes to working legislation through this parliamental

Murphy: He certainly does.

Speers: Could be at many as 16 on the crossbench in the lower house and 17 on the crossbench in the Senate.

Albanese was one of the key government figures during the last hung parliament when Julia Gillard was prime minister.

Antony Green: Liberal Party could finish with only three seats in greater Melbourne

Thoughts from the Insiders panel on the result last night

This is how the panel – Samantha Maiden, David Crowe and Katharine Murphy – have described the election result.

Maiden: “I think what we saw last night was sometimes women didn’t believe Scott Morrison got them and in the end they got Scott Morrison. I mean women basically drove this result. The Independents that swept through Victoria were the physical expression of that female anger that came out in relation to allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct at Parliament House and elsewhere in workplaces around Australia, and basically I don’t necessarily believe this was a government that was passed its use-by date. This was a government where people were sick and tired of Scott Morrison, and the people that were loyal to him, including the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, have paid a very heavy price.”

Crowe: “I think there was an element of the government passing its use-by date and I do think there was something about the Government that was tired. After three terms, there was this sense that a change was needed and in a sense, the prominence of Scott Morrison throughout the campaign, even in the last couple of days, just doing a blitz of media interviews, it highlighted that there weren’t enough other people in the government to step up. He was the figurehead.”

Murphy: “I substantially agree that this was a rejection of Scott Morrison for the reasons that Sam and David have gone through. That is certainly true. I think it was, though, more than a of an individual. It was a repudiatation of an individual, was a repudiatation of the way politics was conducted. Last night Weiss saw the most substantial realignment of the electorate that I have seen in my reporting lifetime. I was obviously 7 when the Democrats were formed and obviously I witnessed the sort of transition of the environment movement into the Greens party which has obviously taken a share of Labor’s vote, but what the Australian people wanted certainly in metropolitan Australia was some sort of different representation.”