‘AUSSIE GOVT CAN’T WIN MAJORITY’
Aussie Sky News projects Morrison’s coalition won’t win enough seats
AUSTRALIA’S ruling conservative government will not win enough seats to form a government, two television stations said yesterday.
Early vote counts showed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative coalition and the Labor opposition losing ground to smaller parties and climatefocussed independents, raising the prospect of a hung parliament.
“At the moment, I can’t see the coalition getting to a majority on these numbers,” the Australian Broadcasting Corp’s election analyst Antony Green said in a live broadcast.
“At the moment, the coalition can’t get a path to 76,” he added, naming the minimum number of seats a party must win to hold a majority in the Parliament of 151 seats.
News Corp-owned cable TV channel Sky News said: “Sky projects coalition can’t win majority.”
A Newspoll survey by The Australian newspaper out on election day showed Labor’s lead over the ruling coalition dipping a point to 53-47 on a two-partypreferred basis, where votes for unsuccessful candidates are redistributed to the top two contenders.
Morrison and opposition leader Anthony Albanese cast their votes in Sydney after making whistle-stop tours across marginal seats in the final two days of a campaign dominated by rising living costs, climate change and integrity.
“Today, Australians are making a big choice about their future,” Morrison said outside a voting centre.
“Australia needs someone who knows how to manage money, knows how to deal with national security interests, knows how to move forward and secure that strong economy.”
Albanese said Australians want a change of government, which he said had nothing to be proud of.
“I’ve put us in a position where at worst we’re competitive today. We’re in the hunt here,” Albanese said about his chances at the polls.
“In the fourth quarter, I want to kick with the wind at my back, and I believe we have the wind at our back,” he said in a reference to Australian Rules football, one of the country’s most popular sports.
As Labor focused on spiking inflation and sluggish wage growth, Morrison made the country’s lowest unemployment in almost half a century the centrepiece of his campaign’s final hours.
While the economy is a key issue, several “teal independents” are challenging a number of affluent Liberal-held seats, campaigning for action on climate change after some of the worst floods and fires to hit Australia.
Three volunteers working for independent Monique Ryan, who is running against Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in the long-held Liberal seat of Kooyong in Melbourne, said they joined Ryan’s campaign because they were concerned about the climate for the sake of their children or grandchildren.
“For me, it’s like this election actually feels hopeful,” Charlotte Forwood, a working mother of three adult children, said.
Early returns suggested the Greens had also made ground, especially in some urban centres, while billionaire Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party and Pauline Hanson’s right-wing One Nation also looked to have gained votes at the expense of both major parties.
In the outgoing Parliament, the Liberal-National coalition held 76 of the 151 lower house seats, while Labour held 68, with seven minor party and independent members.
Voting is compulsory and more than half of votes had been cast by Friday evening, with a record eight million early in-person and postal votes, the Australian Electoral Commission said.
The commission has flagged that a clear winner might not immediately emerge if it is a close contest, due to the time required to count about three million postal votes.