www.theguardian.com
Albanese says he’s aiming for ‘back to back wins’
The prime minister Anthony Albanese was on ABC earlier this morning, saying “back to back wins” is “what we are aiming for today”.
He made his final pitch to undecided or disillusioned voters:
We have a plan for cost of living relief today, by investing in tomorrow. We have a plan to make sure that we continue to build more urgent care clinics. 1.3 million Australians have benefited from that … 600,000 Australians have benefited from free Tafe … And for every single Australian taxpayer, all 14 million of them … will get a tax cut. We’ve created a million jobs since we were in office. Unemployment is the lowest it has been for any government in 50 years. But we know that there’s more to do, but if we get it right, if we are optimistic about Australia’s future, including acting on climate change and the opportunity it represents, not just the challenge, then we can be incredibly successful as a nation, and that stands in contrast to our opponents who’ve been bumping into each other on the field, who haven’t been able to take a mark during this campaign because they don’t know what they are doing.
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n It is unclear how this will translate into seats given the increase in the number of electorates that are three-way contests, rather than coming down to a fight between Labor and the Coalition. Pollster Shaun Ratcliff told Guardian Australia that the latest polls show the Coalition “going backwards” in a selection of key seats he has been tracking, after initial polls in February had the Coalition ahead.
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You can find more granular breakdowns of the polls, including by demography, on our tracking page.
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Somewhat further afield, Australians have already voted, Emily Wind reports:
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In the leadup to election day, Australians have cast their ballots in a number of remote locations and even from overseas – but none as far south as the 100-odd expeditioners currently working in Antarctica.
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Expeditioners working at Australia’s Antarctic and sub-Antarctic stations were able to cast their vote by telephone – a process typically reserved for voters who are blind or have low vision – with no physical ballot booth setup this year.
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Voting opened on 22 April, with expeditioners able to vote early or on election day. But, unlike others, they won’t be fined if they do not vote, according to the Australian Electoral Commission.
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The AEC says Australians travelling to work in Antarctica need to register as an Antarctic elector before leaving the country – with “Antarctic” including the Australian Antarctic Territory, the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Macquarie Island, and a ship at sea in transit to or from Antarctica.
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Arrangements were put in place for expeditioners on the RSV Nuyina in case it arrived back later than scheduled (on 2 May, the day before the election).
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It is just past 8am here in Sydney, and the polling booths are officially open!
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Voters can lodge their ballots between 8am to 6pm today.
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For a refresher on when, where and how to vote, here is our 2025 voting guide with everything you need to know.
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queue to vote in Australia’s general election at a polling station in the suburb of Marrickville in Sydney on 3 May, 2025.”,”caption”:”People queue to vote in Australia’s general election at a polling station in the suburb of Marrickville in Sydney on 3 May, 2025. “,”credit”:”Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1746223875000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”18.11 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1746225975000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”18.46 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1746224127000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”18.15 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”18.15″,”title”:”Polls open in eastern states”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Fri 2 May 2025 20.06 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Fri 2 May 2025 18.09 EDT”}],”filterKeyEvents”:false,”id”:”key-events-carousel-mobile”,”absoluteServerTimes”:false,”renderingTarget”:”Web”}”>
Key events
Polls open in WA
The clock has struck 8am in Perth – meaning polling stations are all officially open across Australia. Happy voting!
Voters popped by the polling station at Bondi beach after a morning swim to cast their votes. A colourful sight!
We want to see your pictures of anything interesting or memorable at the booths today – so send me your things! At rafqa.touma@theguardian.com
Peter Dutton makes his final pitch to voters
Dutton gave his final pitch to undecided voters on Nine’s Weekend Today:
I have the experience as the defence minister and home affairs minister and as the health minister and immigration minister, I’ve worked for four prime ministers, and I was the assistant treasurer to Peter Costello. I want to help get our economy back on track.
I want to reduce inflation so we can bring the interest rates down and bring cost of living down, cut petrol by $0.25 a litre, $1,200 tax rebate back. Restore the dream of home ownership and get this great country back on track.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton was on Nine’s Weekend Today earlier this morning. Asked if he will stay in politics and as opposition leader if he loses the election, Dutton said he is still young with a “burning passion”:
You can’t go to the grand final talking like that. You can only talk about winning.
I’m 54. I’m still very young, and I’ve just got a burning passion … for this country. And I just think we live in the best country in the world. Whatever we can do to make it even better is what we contribute ourselves to.
And I’ve worked really hard over the last three years. We’ve got a united team, and I think there are a lot of quiet Australians out there who may not be telling their neighbours how they’re voting, but I think they’re going to go into the polling booth and say, you know what, I’m not going to reward Anthony Albanese for the last three years. And I think the other mob can manage the economy more effectively, can keep us safe in a really uncertain time. And can try to bring the crime rates down in our local suburbs as well. I think they’re all, you know, the thoughts that are going through people’s minds at the moment.
Martin Farrer
Under a perfect blue sky perhaps more reminiscent of home than the customary grey of London, ex-pats in Britain have been queueing up to vote at Australia House.
The wait to cast a ballot has been up to 30 minutes with the line snaking out of the entrance and up and down the pavement.
From smartly dressed office workers (the men making up surely the biggest concentration of RMs in the northern hemisphere) to holidaymakers ensuring they don’t get caught out for not being at home, there was a large cross-section of Australians in the line
But if the number of people holding Labor how-to-vote cards was anything to go by on the day Guardian Australia did its democratic duty, it’s a surefire landslide for Anthony Albanese today.
Asked how much Donald Trump and international politics has influenced the Australian election, Albanese said: “this has overwhelmingly been about Australian issues”.
The prime minister said the opposition has made an attempt at running “American style politics here of division”:
Meanwhile, the opposition thought that they could just run on grievance and try to divide Australians. We’ve seen them try to start culture wars, including against Indigenous people, targeting them. Australians aren’t obsessed by those issues. We’ve seen an attempt to run American style politics here of division and pitting Australians against each other, and I think that that’s not the Australian way.
Albanese says he’s aiming for ‘back to back wins’
The prime minister Anthony Albanese was on ABC earlier this morning, saying “back to back wins” is “what we are aiming for today”.
He made his final pitch to undecided or disillusioned voters:
We have a plan for cost of living relief today, by investing in tomorrow. We have a plan to make sure that we continue to build more urgent care clinics. 1.3 million Australians have benefited from that … 600,000 Australians have benefited from free Tafe … And for every single Australian taxpayer, all 14 million of them … will get a tax cut. We’ve created a million jobs since we were in office. Unemployment is the lowest it has been for any government in 50 years. But we know that there’s more to do, but if we get it right, if we are optimistic about Australia’s future, including acting on climate change and the opportunity it represents, not just the challenge, then we can be incredibly successful as a nation, and that stands in contrast to our opponents who’ve been bumping into each other on the field, who haven’t been able to take a mark during this campaign because they don’t know what they are doing.
Final polls show Labor in lead
Josh Nicholas
Labor is leading the Coalition 51.4% to 48.6% in Guardian Australia’s poll tracker, after a flurry of final polls from DemosAu, Newspoll, YouGov and Roy Morgan. This is close to a repeat of the last election, but, as you can see in the chart below, even on election day there is still uncertainty.
Labor’s estimated primary vote is steady at 30%, and the Coalition 33% in the latest average. The polls have Labor’s primary vote a little bit higher than this, but the model thinks there might be an overestimation of Labor as was seen in previous elections.
The estimated primary share for the Greens is about 13% according to our model, which would be about a one point increase on the last election. Others and Independents, a group that includes One Nation and the Teal independents, are on 23.5%, up about four points.
