The prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, finished their respective campaigns on home turf in Sydney – Albanese in Marrickville in the seat of Grayndler, and Morrison in Lilli Pilli in the electorate of Cook. Guardian Australia’s Josh Butler and Paul Karp were with the leaders on Saturday for their final pitch to voters.
Anthony Albanese
Albanese’s last public message to voters before polls closed was that he wants to make Australians “proud”.
“My big concern with this government is, what is there to be proud of?” he asked.
The Labor leader’s campaign ended where it all began for him, deep in Sydney’s inner west, surrounded by family. Albanese’s son, Nathan, accompanied him as he cast a ballot for himself; his partner, Jodie, a quiet but constant presence on the election trail beside her beau; his dog, Toto, the shy cavoodle who Albanese clearly adores.
The emotion of the campaign seems to have caught up with Albanese in recent days. Yesterday he swallowed back tears as he spoke of how his late mother Maryanne would be “proud as punch” of him right now. Standing on the steps of the Marrickville town hall, moments after he cast his vote, Albanese wouldn’t start his election day press conference until his son was by his side, wanting to share the moment with his boy.
“I want to unite the country,” he told media.
“Once [the election] is done, we need to unite and move forward as a nation. I believe we can.”
Albanese said he “slept quite well” on Friday night, after blitzing through four states in a day. He woke in Melbourne today, telling breakfast TV interviews that people should “give Labor a crack” in government after nine years of Coalition rule. He visited a polling booth in marginal Liberal-held Higgins, joining Labor candidate Michelle Ananda-Rajah to meet a cavoodle named Bismarck wearing a Labor button, a black greyhound in a red jacket, and dozens of Labor supporters chanting “Albo, Albo”.
Liberal party volunteers brandishing signs for the Higgins incumbent Katie Allen yelled “what’s the unemployment rate?”. Just as he left, a Liberal-shirted man ran across the road with a Bluetooth speaker, pumping the dance remix of the “hole in your bucket” song and dancing as Albanese’s car took off.
A flight to Sydney and a drive back to Marrickville, to vote at the town hall that’s barely 100 metres from his electorate office. Walking Toto, Albanese told Labor volunteers “we’re almost there”. Toto was a hit with supporters outside, with volunteers and journalists posing for photos with the most famous dog in Australian politics. Albanese joked his pet was also running for an important position – “first dog”.
Numerous cars whizzing by along busy Marrickville Road spotted the leader and his entourage, beeping and yelling support. After 26 years as the local member, Albanese said he aimed to stay “grounded” if he won tonight.
Asked by Guardian Australia how he would act as PM while also being the member for Grayndler, Albanese said he’d still try to catch Newtown Jets rugby league games at the local Henson Park whenever he could, and looked forward to rejoining his local tennis competition.
“I’m hoping to get a couple of games in over the next little while,” Albanese laughed.
“My heart is here. I grew up, I’ve lived in this area, the inner west, my whole life.”
In the back of the press conference, several Albanese advisers hugged and smiled, appearing drained after a gruelling campaign. They have been worn down by the six weeks, the campaign and its leader complaining privately and publicly about the media coverage from those on the bus – but with the final event of the campaign drawing to an end, several staffers looked pleased to be at what they called “day zero”.
Albanese himself has told multiple media interviews in recent days that he had “left nothing in the tank, nothing on the field”.
With polls showing Labor still in the lead, albeit with the gap narrowing, Albanese’s team looked confident but nervous. Many of them speak openly of “PTSD” after the 2019 shock loss, and none have uttered a single word even hinting that they think the result is locked.
Albanese said he wasn’t being presumptuous about tonight’s outcome, but appeared confident.
“I believe we have the wind at our back, and I’m very positive about and hopeful about a good outcome,” he said.
Scott Morrison
Morrison delivered an election day bombshell in one last ditch attempt to scare voters against voting for Labor.
But first, a round of interviews, addressing the conundrum of whether he represents change or continuity.
On Weekend Sunrise, Morrison acknowledged that women’s issues were “an area where clearly I need to communicate better”.
On ABC News Breakfast, Morrison said “the strength that I have described in the way that I did [bulldozer], that remains, but we will be going into a different gear”. Morrison’s own bulldozer analogy is now evidently so meaningless or counterproductive that he couldn’t even bring himself to say the word.
Morrison attended a polling booth in McEwen, rejecting conspiracy theories from United Australia party supporters that the government is handing control over to the World Health Organization. “That’s a complete lie,” he said. “You’re just making stuff up.”
Morrison cut short his Melbourne trip, ditching a planned event in Chisholm to race back to Sydney.
He voted at Lilli Pilli public school around midday, arriving to supportive chants of “Scomo! Scomo!” from young children either enthusiastic to see him re-elected or, perhaps more simply, to get on TV.
At a doorstop after he voted, Morrison confirmed a report that a boat from Sri Lanka had been intercepted on its way to Australia – an apparent breach of the protocol he established as immigration minister not to comment on on-water matters. He refused to answer interjections on that point.
And then he was off, pursued by the cries of a climate protester, Desiree, from Tomorrow Movement.
Desiree from the Tomorrow Movement has a message for Scott Morrison and Australians voting today pic.twitter.com/FMQFxUf7et
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 21, 2022
The next we will see him is when he takes the stage to announce his second “miracle” election victory or concede that this really was his last political gasp.
