19 May 2019

Recap: Australia's federal election 2019

2:18 am on 19 May 2019

Labor leader Bill Shorten has conceded the Australian general election to Scott Morrison's Liberal-led Coalition.

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison talks to the media outside a polling booth during Australia's general election in Sydney on May 18, 2019.

Scott Morrison Photo: AFP

The ABC's chief elections analyst Antony Green earlier called the election for the Liberal coalition.

Mr Green said, at 11.30pm New Zealand time: "At this stage, we think the Morrison government has been re-elected. We can't see an alternative to a Morrison government in the numbers we're seeing at the moment.

"We can't say whether the Government will be in a majority or minority, but we're certainly seeing enough numbers to say that the Coalition will end up with more seats than Labor.

"And the only way that the Morrison Government cannot win this election is if the number of them aren't seats where they're currently ahead, they fall back on and fall behind in pre-polls, but also that Labor would have to cobble together all of the crossbench to be in government.

"So, at the moment, it's looking very strongly like the Morrison government will be returned. We're just not sure in what position it will be returned.

"Will it be a majority? Will it be a minority? That's where the pre-polls will determine what happens."

A large opinion poll on Friday showed Prime Minister Scott Morrison's coalition was on course for a narrow defeat - by a margin of 49 percent to 51 percent - compared to the Labor Party led by Bill Shorten.

The last days of campaigning were overshadowed by the death of the former Labor leader and Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

Australian political commentators and academics say race and immigration have been largely missing from the election campaign as a consequence of the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Listen to daily podcastThe Detail's guide to Australia's 2019 election.

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