Melbourne, May 20: Scott Morrison defied all polls and pundits and led the Coalition to a stunning victory in 2019 elections.

Claiming victory Prime Minister Morrison paid tribute to the “quiet Australians” who had delivered the Liberal Party victory.

“I have always believed in miracles,” he said.

“And tonight we’ve been delivered another one. How good is Australia?

“God Bless Australia.”

The Coalition is set to secure a majority – 77 seat majority after Labor’s primary vote crashed to 33 per cent and the Liberals rising to 41 per cent – defying the many published polls.

Following on the heels of Brexit and Trump, Australia witnessed its own Brexit-Trump moment on Saturday, May 18.

However, this was not totally unexpected as many jurnos, commentators and pundits would like us to believe.

2019 elections was the voice of “quiet Australians” who defied the social commentary of needing to be politically correct.

This was an election for jobs, food and electricity within homes – and no, not all Australians like the hand-me downs from social welfare.

It was Queensland that delivered for the Coalition, where Labor’s primary vote crashed to as low as 26 per cent.

The LNP victory swept through working-class regions, leaving Coalition with at least 23 seats in a “wipe out” for Labor, as described by election analyst Antony Green.

“That’s the sort of wipe-out we were seeing in 2001, 2004 in Queensland for Labor,” he said during the coverage.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who held onto his marginal seat of Dickson used a Paul Keating quote: “This is the sweetest victory of all,” in his victory speech. This was a scathing come-back to Paul Keating who had urged voters to drive a stake through his heart.

“I want to thank a former prime minister. His name is Paul Keating. This is the sweetest victory of all,” Mr Dutton said.

“People didn’t want Bill Shorten as prime minister of this country, and they’ve spoken tonight, and in Queensland I think we’ve delivered in magnificent form.”

He also took aim at the dirty tricks campaign of Labor, GetUp! and the Greens which he said had been overwhelmingly rejected by Dickson voters.

“There’s been a lot of mud thrown at us and tonight the people of Dickson have rejected their negative campaign,” he said.

The Adani factor in Labor’s loss

Gautam Adani’s Australian Coal Mine swayed the 2019 elections in favour of Coalition

Labor’s mixed position on the Adani mine and Bill Shorten’s unpopularity in Queensland was two serious factors, and could also hurt Labor in the state election due in October next year.

A Queensland ALP source is known to have said that ‘people just don’t like Bill Shorten … it’s as simple and as complicated as that’.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the Labor party would have to do some soul-searching to win back blue-collar voters in Central and North Queensland, following the electoral wipe out for the party.

Many Labor strategists believe that Palaszczuk government will have to sign off on the Adani mine if the party is to have any chance of winning the next year’s state election.

They admitted that delays in approving the mine was a major reason voters deserted them in regional Queensland.

Simultaneously, Bob Brown’s “Stop Adani” convoy to Central Queenslanders further angered voters.

Capricornia Liberal MP Michelle Landry said that anti-Adani convoy was the reason for her massive swing. “Thank you Bob Brown is all I can say,” she said.

Dawson MP George Christensen polled a two-candidate-preferred vote of more than 65 per cent and also said the anti-Adani convoy played a part in boosting his vote.

“The issues that shone through were all about local jobs,” he said.

“[They] were all about coal mining, a tax on farming, all about the Bob Brown convoy coming up here, how close the Labor Party is to the Green movement now.”

Coalition strategists suggest that removal of Malcolm Turnbull helped the Liberals to not only hold a string of coal line seats but also increase their winning margins this elections.

Voters in Tasmania also bolstered the Coalition’s fortunes with seats like Braddon and the bellwether seat of Bass turning blue.

Clearly, Labor’s “retiree tax” and negative gearing reforms also did not cut any ice with the voters. Over 65s were responsible for the biggest swings against the ALP, according to Labor officials.

Former Prime Minister John Howard also delivered a blow to ALP, just before elections saying it was clear that Mr Shorten was “no Bob Hawke”.

“He has done something I don’t think Bob Hawke would have ever done, and that is trying to divide the country on class lines,” Mr Howard said.

Cash strapped families with children will now look forward to PM Morrison’s legislation for $1080 tax cuts for workers earning under $130,000 a year.

Clive Palmer claims his helping hand in Coalition victory

As Liberals exchanged preference deals with Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, the Nationals struck deals with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. This inevitably hurt Labor as it failed to resonate with the ‘silent majority’.

Preferences from Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, which won 3.5 per cent primary vote and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, which won 8.7 per cent primaries helped the LNP in the outcome.

Mr Palmer claimed Prime Minister Scott Morrison should thank him for the win.

“It’s clear Scott Morrison has been returned as Prime Minister and he’s only done so because of the 3.5 per cent of the vote of the United Australia Party,” he told 7News.

Yet it is unlikely that Mr Palmer would be able to secure a Queensland Senate ticket despite spending $60 million on advertising.

“He spent, what, $60 million bucks on negative ads about us. It doesn’t look like he is going to get a seat himself but he has done a good job in funnelling preferences to the Coalition,” Labor frontbencher Penny Wong said.

Micheal O’Brien, leader of Opposition in Victoria said “Sco-Momentum is real”.

He said that vital projects for Victoria such as the East West Link and fast rail to Geelong would now be able to proceed with funding from the Federal Liberal Nationals.

“While Daniel Andrews rorted taxpayer money to fund an outrageous advertising campaign against the Morrison Government, he must now accept the verdict of the Australian people.

“Having already wasted over $1.3 billion in tearing up the East West Link once, Victorians will not cop Daniel Andrews turning his back on $4 billion to do it a second time”, O’Brien said.

He urged Daniel Andrews to now work with re-elected Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to deliver these vital projects for Victoria.

But in a night of shock results of 2019 elections, former prime minister Tony Abbott accepted defeat against independent Zali Steggall, while independent member for Wentworth, Dr Kerryn Phelps conceded defeat to Liberal candidate Dave Sharma.

“Of course it’s disappointing for us here in Warringah, but what matters is what’s best for the country,” Mr Abbott said.

“It’s not so much who wins or loses Warringah but who does or doesn’t form a government in Canberra.

The backlash against Mr Abbott in 2019 elections was sparked by a number of issues, including climate change.

“There is absolutely no doubt that GetUp!, the green left, have put massive resources into this seat … and I think the message is that people have got to resist very strongly that green-left ideology because it’s doing enormous damage to our economy.”

Dave Sharma has seized back Wentworth for the Liberals in 2019 elections

Dr Phelps was elected in a by-election last year. She said she was proud of what she achieved in just seven months – especially fighting to remove children from Nauru and the passing of the ‘Medevac bill’.

Mr Sharma said this time around, constituents were voting on national issues.

“I was helped by the tailwind of a strong national campaign,” he said.

“The minds of voters were focused on the national choice they were making this time around.”

But a disconnected mainstream media that has moved away from factual analysis into ‘politically correct’ opinionated broadcasting – failed to deliver for everyday Australians who do not believe in condescending political correctness.

Journalists Barrie Cassidy and Leigh Sales pondered:

Leigh Sales: Do you have any idea why the polls haven’t been reliable on this occasion? Barrie Cassidy: None.”

But several days before elections, Professor Bela Stantic analysed over 2 million comments, through half a million accounts, poring over 50 key terms and predicted that Scott Morrison would win 2019 elections – but the broadcasters were too busy with the Shorten narrative.

Director of Griffith University’s Big Data and Smart Analytics lab, he tipped in 2016 that Donald Trump would win United States’ elections, and earlier correctly predicted the Brexit outcome.

  • PM Morrison’s Facebook page 25 per cent more engaged audience than Bill Shorten’s.
  • Likewise, Liberal Party’s Facebook page had double the levels of activity over Labor’s Facebook.
  • Even One Nation’s Pauline Hanson outperformed Mr Shorten on Facebook.

Nidhi Mehta