By Laura Tingle*
Analysis - Lots of currents swirled behind Australia's election, but the results signal that 2022 was - finally, the climate election.
Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese celebrates as he walks off the stage in Sydney on election night after winning the 2022 general election. Photo: AFP/ Wendell Teodoro
Labor leader Anthony Albanese will be sworn in tomorrow as the new prime minister after incumbent Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded defeat in yesterday's election.
It was an election that has profoundly changed the political geography and demography of Australia. An election that rejected smarty-pants political tactics and messaging, and a call for our political leaders to take the job of government seriously.
It wasn't just that the independent candidates running on climate change made spectacular gains. There was also a swing to the Greens - and at least one more seat in parliament for them, if not more.
Even in the so-called "coal" seats like NSW's Hunter and central Queensland's Flynn, there was not a huge swing, as had been predicted, toward the ruling right-wing Liberal-National Coalition because of fear of loss of coal jobs but in fact toward the Labor party.
Decimated and shattered
It is the end of the Morrison government in an election which - while it might not have resulted in a landslide for the opposition - has seen the conservative Liberal party decimated and shattered.
It has seen Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unseated from the seat of Liberal party founder Sir Robert Menzies, and a rout in the wealthiest electorates of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Scott Morrison's close ally, special minister of state Ben Morton, has also lost his seat of Tangney in Perth, after suffering a swing of almost 12 percent against him.
Formerly safe Coalition seats are now marginal seats and there has been inroads made in places Labor has never gone before.
There was a swing of more than 6 percent against Scott Morrison in his own seat and seats that the Coalition targeted - like Blair in Queensland and Lingiari in NT - also stubbornly resisted the PM's visits and overtures and swung further to Labor.
The demographics of the seats that the decimated Liberal Party now represents are very different groups of people to the ones it represented a decade ago.
The balance of power of the Coalition will also change. The Nationals have held all their seats but the Liberals have lost so many seats.
The Coalition will be a very, very small opposition grouping, while the cross bench is likely to be around twice as large as it was in the last parliament.
The downfall of the ruling government, the destruction of so much of what has been the old Liberal Party, and the story of the independents also makes the story of the night - that we have a new Labor government seem almost a postscript when of course it is the most important story for the future.
It seemed to remain a possibility that Labor might be able to form a government in its own right on Saturday night - but whether it can or not, the fact it is set for either a majority or minority government after having won just on 30 percent of the primary vote says much about the way Australian politics has profoundly changed at this election.
A coalition builder
One of the most important things to note about the nature of the new Labor government is that it will be an Albanese Labor government, in that it was Albanese as Leader of the House who more than any other person made the last Labor minority government work.
He is a superb negotiator and coalition builder - skills that will be crucial whatever the final numbers. And that sets the culture for his government. His Leader of the House, Tony Burke, is an equally wily negotiator.
There are multiple options for Labor if it wishes to negotiate on particular issues, and significantly a path through roadblocks that have held Australia back for a decade on climate change.
A proper integrity commission looms, which could help re-establish some sense of probity in government and trust from voters. And an indigenous Voice to Parliament may also finally make progress.
It's the most transformative election you can imagine: Both in the country and in the way we govern ourselves.
* Laura Tingle is a chief political correspondent at the ABC.
-ABC
