Australian PM Scott Morrison claims historic win after Labor loses ‘unlosable’ election

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It is still unknown if Morrison will form a majority or minority government, but swings to the coalition across large Australian states, especially Queensland, have ensured he will remain prime minister.

In a triumphant speech Saturday night, Morrison said he had “always believed in miracles.”

“And tonight we’ve been delivered another one,” he told jubilant supporters in Sydney who chanted Morrison’s nickname “ScoMo.”

After losing an election which many analysts described as “unlosable,” Labor leader Bill Shorten conceded and announced he would be stepping down as head of the party.

“I know that you’re all hurting, and I am too,” Shorten told party supporters in Melbourne. “I’m proud that we argued what was right, not what was easy … Politics should be the battle of ideas.”

The result will be devastating for the center-right Labor Party, which had been ahead in every opinion poll during the campaign and had expected to easily form a government after Saturday’s vote.

“This was the unlosable election for the Labor Party. That’s how this was considered,” ABC’s Patricia Karvelas said from the Melbourne Labor event.

Labor had run on a high-profile campaign of taking action on climate change, improving funding to services, and ending tax cuts for top earners.

With Shorten stepping down, his deputy Tanya Plibersek is a likely contender for the next Australian Labor Party leader.

“Up until today the expectation was that the labor leader Bill Shorten would become Australia’s next Prime Minister, those expectations have been dashed in the extreme,” political journalist Tom McIlroy told CNN.

“There hasn’t been a result like this in Australian politics in a generation.”

Victory for the ‘quiet Australians’

Late Saturday, Morrison’s party was forecast to win at least 71 seats by the Australian Electoral Commission. But the Liberal Party leader will need 76 if he wants to form majority government.

Whether he’ll be able to do that is still unclear.

Speaking around midnight, Morrison thanked his family and the “quiet Australians” whose support he credited for his win.

“It’s Australians who have worked hard, started a business, started a family, bought a home,” he said to loud cheers. “These are the quiet Australians who have won a great victory tonight.”

Emeritus professor of politics at the Australian National University John Warhurst told CNN the result was a “repudiation of public opinion polls,” which time after time had written off the Liberal National government.

“It’s a credit to Scott Morrison as an effective campaigner,” Warhurst said. “The effective part of his campaign was to throw doubt into the minds of the Australian community about the cost of Labor’s proposals.”





Source : Nbcnewyork