The federal election outcome was always going to dominate newspaper headlines, but the coverage made it clear that Anthony Albanese’s landslide victory was anything but expected – both for the winner and the loser.
Here is how Australian and international news captured Labor’s win:
The Sunday Telegraph’s election special edition was headlined: “It’s so Alban-easy” – while his opponent was “Duttonated”.
The historic win was branded a “mega victory”, while Andrew Bolt wrote the “gutless and incoherent Coalition should be ashamed”.
On Monday, the Daily Telegraph turned its attention to how Dutton’s Liberal party fared in Sydney, with its “attacks on migration and policy of cutting international students to lower house prices” reported to have cost the party the ethnic vote across the city and New South Wales.
“Albanese supremacy” stated the Australian as it described Labor’s “thumping election victory”. The prime minister’s “powerful authority” inside a second-term Labor government “decimated” Peter Dutton’s Liberal party, it reported.
While Albanese was given the Mr Whippy treatment by the Adelaide Advertiser, the Liberals were reported to be turning on each other in what the paper headlined “Red, red whine”. The swing to Labor was larger in South Australia than in any other state.
Tasmania’s historic quad of Labor MPs led the Mercury’s coverage on Monday, with Jess Teesdale, Rebecca White, Julia Collins and Anne Urquhart “ready to take on Canberra”, the paper said.
Over at the West Australian, “Albo country” has been declared. Like many outlets, the paper’s coverage on Monday was led by the PM’s “sweet and Albanese” moment serving ice-creams at a cafe in his Sydney electorate on Sunday.
The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday turned its focus to how Albanese’s new ministry might look, with more than a dozen new MPs expected to change its factional structure.
In Queensland, Albanese’s “Hecs appeal” – referring to the government’s promise to slash student loan debts – fuelled Labor’s “demolition of the Greens and Liberals”, while Dutton was kept in the dark about poor polling in Dickson, the Courier-Mail reported on Monday.
Over at the Financial Review on Monday, the “rout” put the economy into focus.
The BBC called Albanese’s win a “stunning comeback”, describing how he “defied the so-called ‘incumbency curse’” that has shaped global elections in recent months.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported the “resounding defeat” completed “a stunning turnaround” for the PM. Dutton’s loss, the Times said, “echoed the ouster of Canada’s conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, whose defeat was seen as a rejection of his embrace of [Donald] Trump.”
