2019 Australian Federal Election

2019 Australian Federal Election
2019 Australian federal election 

        Saturday 18 May 2019

Previous Election: 2016 Australian Federal Election 

Next Election: 2020 Australian Federal Election 

All 151 seats in the House of Representatives

76 seats are needed for a majority

40 (of the 76) seats in the Senate

Prime Minster Before Election: Scott Morrison

Subsequent Prime Minster: Scott Morrison

Background
Previous Election 

The outcome of the 2016 federal election could not be predicted on election night, with too many seats in doubt. After a week of vote counting, neither the incumbent Turnbull Government led by Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull of the Liberal/National Coalition nor the Shorten Opposition led by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten of the Australian Labor Party had won enough seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives to form a majority government.

During the uncertain week following the election, Turnbull negotiated with the cross bench  and secured confidence and supply support from Bob Katter and from independents Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan in the event of a hung parliament and resulting minority’ government. During crossbench negotiations, Turnbull pledged additional staff and resources for crossbenchers, and stated "It is my commitment to work in every way possible to ensure that the crossbenchers have access to all of the information they need and all of the resources they need to be able to play the role they need in this parliament".

On 10 July, eight days after the election took place and following Turnbull's negotiations with the crossbench where he secured sufficient confidence and supply support, Shorten conceded defeat, acknowledging that the incumbent Coalition had enough seats to form either a minority or majority government. Turnbull claimed victory later that day. In the closest federal majority result since the 1961 Election, the ABC declared on 11 July that the incumbent Coalition would be able to form a one-seat majority government.

Change of Prime Minster 

Following the Liberal Party Leadership Spill on 24th August 2018, Malcolm Turnbull was replaced as Prime Minister by Scott Morrison. Turnbull resigned from parliament on 31 August, triggering a by-election in his former seat of Wentworth. The by-election was won by independent Kerryn Phelps. This, combined with National MP Kevin Hogan's move to the cross bench and the resignation of MP Julia Banks from the Liberal Party, reduced the government to 73 seats going into the election; a net three-seat deficit.

Further dissatisfaction within the Liberal Party saw a number of centrist and economically-liberal candidates announce that they would nominate as independents in wealthy electorates, with a specific focus on "addressing climate change".

Results
House Of Representatives (lower house)

Popular Vote   TPP Senate (upper house)

Popular Vote