So we have good and bad news for you from the land down under. The good news is that the Australian election is finally over (we think!). The bad news is that we have no idea who our leader is! Yep, that’s right, you read that one correctly!

The result is a bit of a mixed message on where Australians stand. Australians have come out strongly in support of a number of independent parties moving away from the two major parties. From a global perspective, Australia’s reaction is very similar to that coming from other western democracies such as the US and UK with parties with nationalistic views around security, refugee policy and the economy featuring strongly.

We don’t think this means people don’t care about their neighbours or want to see a world free of extreme poverty.  We believe that we need to understand this growing trend and ask those that care to #shOwup and be passionate Global Citizens.

What happened?

Australians headed to the polls on the 2nd of July to elect a new government. The result was too close too call.  

To form majority government in Australia, a party needs to obtain at least 76 seats in the House of Representatives.

Antony Green, Australia’s leading voting expert, is reporting projected totals as: Coalition 73, Labor 72, Greens 1, Nick Xenophon Team 1, Katter's Australian Party 1 and Independents 2. A more detailed analysis can be found here.

Many of these seats are under 0.5% so a lot can change over the coming weeks and the Coalition may still reach the 76 total to form majority government. However, according to current projections this is unlikely. Australia could for the second time in a decade have a hung Parliament.

So who are the crossbench Members that could hold the balance of power and are they Global Citizens?

  • Nick Xenophon’s Team’s (NXT) Rebekha Sharkie has won the seat of Mayo. NXT have a very strong position on Australia’s aid program committing during the election campaign to commit 0.7% of GNI and restoring budget cuts.  
  • Bob Katter has been re-elected in the seat of Kennedy which he has held for a very long time. He is a passionate Queenslander who has strong views on immigration and foreign ownership policies, but has not put out a statement on Australia’s aid program.
  • Adam Bandt has been re-elected as the Member for Melbourne.  The Greens have a strong policy in support of Australia’s aid program, committing to 0.7% of GNI.
  • Andrew Wilkie has been re-elected to represent the Tasmanian seat of Denison, based in Hobart. Andrew has been a passionate advocate for the aid program, committing to restore budget cuts and 0.7% of GNI.
  • Cathy McGowan has been reelected to the seat of Indi in North-East Victoria. Whilst Cathy has no stated position on Australia’s aid program investment, she has repeatedly raised concerns in the Parliament about cuts to Australia’s aid program particularly in the Pacific.

What’s next?

The AEC have commenced counting more than one million postal vote applications today.  More information on the status of the count can be found at www.aec.gov.au.

It’s a time for patience and recovery as #auswaits for the vote count to be completed over the coming weeks.  

Thanks to the thousands of AEC officials and volunteers that make our great democracy work! Whatever the outcome, it will be make for an interesting Parliament indeed.

It is our hope that whoever is elected will lead a strong and compassionate government that seeks to represent the interests of global citizens.

We’ll keep you posted as we hear more and find out the result. 

TopicsAustraliaPoliticsVoteElection resultsFederal Election

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