The Decimation of the leftovers

It was brutal and efficient. It was glorious for those of us who support Labor. It was better than some of us had even dared to hope for.

By 8.30pm, two and a half hours after polling closed in the eastern states - and as counting had barely begun in Western Australia - Antony Green was calling it for Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party. He surmised that there was no way that the Coalition could win at this point.

Not long afterwards, news of Peter Dutton's loss in the seat of Dickson to Labor's Ali France was telecast on every available election channel to the dismay of many right-wing pundits of the media, the discombobulation and angst of right-wing rusted ons everywhere and the absolute delight of those who have followed Ali France through some of the toughest years of her life.

To his credit, Dutton was humble in defeat. He congratulated Ali, telling her that she "was going to make a great MP". Dutton went on to thank Anthony Albanese and tell him that "his mum would be incredibly proud of his achievement". It is interesting to see such emotion in Dutton, who has for the most part of his career perpetuated a persona of tough-man discord and division politically - with little empathy or sympathy displayed unless there was something in it politically for him.

As we saw early swings to Labor, we dared to hope that this was a trend. As the coalition lost their seats from state to state - we realised it was going to be a Labor landslide. The Liberals have been wiped out in Tasmania and Adelaide -mostly by Labor. The onslaught of misinformation and lies launched by the fossil fuel industry, the Liberals and Advance against the Teals failed to reap any real benefits. The Teals held fast and stuck to their grassroots guns within their communities and stayed on message. Considering the amount of venom that they endured in their electorates - congratulating them on their outstanding campaigns and their intestinal fortitude should be the minimum requirement.

Queensland, the ever-present banjo-twanging paradise, surprised us all. Not since 2007 and Kevin Rudd has there been such a good outcome for Labor. Labor have picked up around seven seats in Queensland from the LNP and the Greens - including Dutton's seat. Labor will also pick up another Senate seat in Queensland. Labor's Corrine Mulholland will become the fourth Senator representing Queensland in the Federal Senate.

Despite the success of Dutton's divisive No campaign, it was not a strategy that was going to completely gel with the Australian electorate long term. Three long years of toxicity, division, culture wars, dog whistling racism and hate - combined with fragmented sound bites of misinformation, the generation of fear and lies from the majority of the media has resulted in an electorate that is exhausted. Combine that with the every day struggles of many Australians and a box seat to the shytfokery of current US politics on ordinary citizens - the electorate is more likely to go with what they know and reject a repeat performance of Trumpism in Australia - and the fear of the fearful unknown. Dutton did not help this perspective by applying Trumpian-Rinehart rhetoric into DOGE-like aspirations for the future of this country.

As Dutton and a shattered Coalition are learning, sustained attacks on Labor, opposing everything that Labor tries to legislate, dog whistling culture wars - again - for political opportunism during an election campaign, limited and questionable policies, suspicious costings that show up a few days before the election and an ill-thought out strategy that focused on the "values" and aspirations of the Coalition like-minded and their faithful - while failing to take in the diversity, fears and aspirations of the electorate.. are going to bite.

The track they are back on is more likely to be a little used goat track rather than a superhighway to the future of renewables, education, health, housing, infrastructure, social values, equality, human rights and respect for First Nations people.

In my opinion, without an influx of progressive and more community minded MPs - we are seeing the demise of the Coalition. It will be interesting to see who they will now select as the leader of the opposition's 'stable of geniuses' to lead them for the next three years.

Then again, I'm hoping that it will be another shyteshow of leadership and infighting - and the electorate will witness more of the same ineffectual and duplicitous Coalition malarkey - because it is the antithesis of good government and a winning formula for Labor.

Credit: ABC and The Guardian Australia.

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