Labor’s ‘Win for the Ages’
By Steven Tripp
originally published in the Light australia newspaper - please support the Light australia newspaper!
Labor’s win at the 2025 Federal election was a ‘win for the ages’ as declared by the Guardian and a ‘landslide victory’ by many other media outlets.
Remarkably, Labor increased its representation in Parliament, which is opposite to all first-term Governments of the past 50 years.
Labor won 94 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives, or 62.7%; the highest percentage since 1996.
The result was also Labor’s largest primary vote margin over the Coalition since Bob Hawke’s victory in 1983.
Despite this, Labor’s win relied on favourable preferences, as they only achieved 34.6% of the National primary vote.
In a worrying trend for Labor and the Coalition, minor parties and Independents collectively secured 33.6% primary votes, the highest proportion ever.
Of this 33.6% included the Teals, which saw continued success. Despite narrowly losing Goldstein, the Teals picked up Bradfield, which went down to the wire by only 26 votes. Elsewhere, Sophie Scamps, Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall enjoyed commanding wins.
Meanwhile, the Greens suffered big losses, losing three of their previous four seats, including their leader, Adam Bandt in Melbourne and the Queensland seats of Brisbane and Griffith.
The Senate result saw unexpected success for One Nation, with the party increasing its Senate representation to four, picking up two new Senators in Warwick Stacey (NSW) and Tyron Whitten (WA).
Initially in New South Wales, One Nation was over 130,000 votes behind Labor. However, strong preference flows from Libertarians (42.2%), Trumpet of Patriots (47.5%) and Family First (44.7%) ensured Warwick Stacey’s success and a significant improvement in the minor right’s use of preferences.
Other results saw Family First emerge as a dark horse, beating both the Libertarians and Trumpet of Patriots on preferences in New South Wales and earning respectable results elsewhere.
The former Liberal Democrats suffered heavily with their name change to Libertarians, polling only 0.6% in Victoria and Western Australia and even less in Queensland and Tasmania. Craig Kelly secured their best result with 1.9% in New South Wales, but the joint ticket with Gerard Rennick’s People First must be considered.
Of concern was the informal votes in some electorates, particularly in Western Sydney. Werriwa topped the list with an informal vote of 17.3%, with similar figures in Watson (17.0%), Fowler (14.0%) and Chifley (13.5%). When adding 10-14% of voters who did not turn up, roughly a quarter of these electorates did not cast valid votes.
By Steven Tripp