18 May 2019 10:58 pm
Australian PM Scott Morrison claims historic win
Australia's Liberal National coalition government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison has won a historic victory, taking his party for a third term in government against all expectations.
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-left 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 of the Australian Financial Review told CNN.
"There hasn't been a result like this in Australian politics in a generation."(CNN)