Follow along as Australia decides who will lead the country for the next three years.
Follow along as Australia decides who will lead the country for the next three years.
As voters flock to the polls, and run the gauntlet of volunteers armed with how-to-vote cards, we want to hear from you.
Had the best democracy sausage of your life? Waiting in an extraordinarily long line? Seen something that doesn’t seem quite right?
Let us know below.
An unlikely source of helpers at polling booths has emerged: gig economy workers found via Airtasker, the app that allows people to outsource work at a rate they set.
Several candidates across Sydney have used the app to bolster their presence at polling stations, including Warringah independent candidate David Spratt, whose ad said “Taskers” would be paid $100 to hand out how to vote cards. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.
But the most prolific of them appears to be Steven Commerford, an independent candidate running in the marginal seat of Reid, who has had more than a dozen requests for help at specific polling booths across the electorate posted online.
“Friendly person to help give out flyers at polling booth!” one request for help reads. Another: “Available on Saturday to hand out flyers?”
The requests were posted by “Steve F.”, who wrote he was searching for “an army to help hand out flyers for an independent candidate on election day … You make a difference in democracy”, attached with selfies of volunteers in Commerford’s T-shirts.
$120 was offered for the day, with food and drinks provided. Most of the jobs had been filled, Airtasker reported. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another ad posted by “Joel D.” requested help putting up corflutes early this morning. “Total payments will depend upon how many booths you can cover, we are looking at $40 per polling booth … the signs will not be supporting a particular party or candidate – the message will be to put the major parties last.”
Sonya Semmens, the Greens candidate for Macnamara in inner-city Melbourne, is a bundle of election day energy. She’s wearing a hard to miss badge that’s promoting the Greens plan to get dental into medicare.
Semmens tells this masthead that she has personally knocked on almost 10,000 doors during this election campaign. She’s loved the opportunity to talk to “her neighbours”.
“People feel disengaged with both of the major parties. And they’re looking for an offering that inspires them.”
She’s planning on staying at this booth “until the line goes down”. And she might be hanging around for an awfully long time.
The queue to vote at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in Southbank wraps around the block. Locals are being told it could be up to a two-hour wait.
Private security guards were employed to protect campaign signage at polling places overnight in the ultra-marginal seat of Bennelong, a spokesperson for Scott Yung’s campaign has said.
Security was employed after Liberal Party signs were damaged in several locations, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson would not say which or how many locations had received protection. Readers have written to us saying they saw security guards at polling sites in Lane Cove and Boronia Park.
Yung is contesting the seat against one-term Labor MP Jerome Laxale. After redistribution, the electorate sits on a notional margin of 0.04 per cent to the Liberal Party.
Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian has cast her vote in the north Sydney electorate of Bradfield, where she faces a challenge from teal independent Nicolette Boele.
Kapterian declined to speak to this masthead, but appeared upbeat, embracing and shaking voters’ hands at Turramurra Public School.
After a redistribution which meant retiring Liberal MP Paul Fletcher’s margin was reduced to 2.5 per cent, the seat could come down to the wire.
Volunteers said the polling station had been quiet, perhaps because of the record numbers of pre-poll voters.
The real star of the show is a mini-market set up, which includes a sausage sizzle, a bake sale, and a “Second Chance Book Stall”, with proceeds going to the school’s P&C association.
Incumbent Wentworth independent Allegra Spender cast her vote at the Clovelly Surf Life Saving Club because it’s a new part of her electorate, she has friends manning the booths, and it’s “idyllic”.
“Who wouldn’t want to vote around here?” she said.
Earlier this morning, Wentworth challenger and Liberal candidate Ro Knox said teal volunteers had been aggressive towards her. Spender, who chose not to comment on Knox’s specific claims, reiterated more generally the need to act cordially.
“To be honest what I try to say, and what I’ve been trying to say to everybody is that people can have different views but in this country, we need to disagree well, and that’s something that’s really, really important.
“So I have been urging everyone, it doesn’t matter who you’re voting for, it doesn’t matter what your views are – let’s engage constructively,” she said.
On Friday morning, acting Australian Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope said there had been “isolated incidents” in the Wentworth and Bennelong electorates that police had been called to respond to.
There are “good vibes” in Peter Dutton’s electorate, according to the Labor candidate Ali France, as the opposition leader remains noticeably absent from Queensland.
France posted a photo from a polling station in Albany Creek in the city’s northern suburbs.
“It’s time, Dickson! Some good vibes at Albany Creek in Dickson this morning,” France posted.
Meanwhile, Ellie Smith, the independent candidate for Dickson, was scheduled to vote in Bray Park today. She has thanked volunteers and supporters.
“This campaign has always been about community, and we’ve built something powerful together,” Smith said.
Dutton, who holds his seat with a margin of 1.7 per cent, kicked off the morning in Melbourne as part of a final push for voters. He is expected to arrive in Brisbane later today.
Greens candidate for Wills, Samantha Ratnam, has cast her ballot on election day at Brunswick East Primary School – a booth where her party polled 47 per cent of the vote in 2022.
From there, she planned to head to John Fawkner Secondary College, where Labor MP Peter Khalil had earlier been handing out how-to-vote cards. Khalil voted by post, so there was no opportunity for the traditional election day photo of him casting a ballot.
The day began with Ratnam joining Greens leader Adam Bandt for a brief press conference outside the Brunswick East booth.
Ratnam said the Greens had run “one of the biggest campaigns in Victorian Greens history – we have knocked on over 70,000 doors because we wanted to make sure that their voices were being heard, and they weren’t being taken for granted”.
She said cost-of-living pressures, housing prices, Gaza, and climate change were the issues raised with her most often during the campaign.
Read more in our Victoria’s hot seats blog here.
We caught up with Greens leader Adam Bandt at his second stop this morning, this time in his own electorate of Melbourne where he was handing out flyers with Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell at North Melbourne Primary School.
As the incumbent for 15 years, Bandt is popular with many voters in the area and is seen as somewhat synonymous with the electorate.
However, the margin has been steadily closing, from a high of 22.6 per cent in 2019, to 10.2 per cent in 2022 and now, with a shift in electoral boundaries, down to about 6.5 per cent.
“I’m here at this polling booth in the local area beause I think you can’t take anything for granted,” Bandt says. “People can see that we’re trying to tackle the big issues and the others aren’t, it’s a battle of the Band-Aids between Labor and Liberal.”
It’s a beautiful morning in the inner Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, with the constituents of Macnamara enjoying the sun while they wait to cast their vote.
Locky Ellis, 22, is easy to spot among the crowd in a bright green jumper. The outfit choice is no coincidence. His mind is already made up.
“I wanted to speak to as few people as possible … and I didn’t want any pamphlets,” he says.
Ellis is prioritising climate action at this election, as well as integrity in politics. He would like to see Australia steer slightly away from a two-party system.
“I went to an election forum this year … that solidified my decision [that] my views are aligned with Sonya [Semmens] and the Greens,” he says.
Wearing her signature pink blazer and yellow pin for Israeli hostages, Liberal candidate for Wentworth Ro Knox has cast her vote at St George’s Anglican Church in Paddington this morning.
“The teals, in particular, have been very, very aggressive during this campaign,” Knox said.
“Personally, I’ve experienced some relatively poor behaviour from some of the volunteers, definitely not from Allegra Spender though, she’s been high-integrity throughout the campaign.”
Spender did not respond to a question about Knox’s claim.
Though she says the cost of living is the biggest concern for her electorate, antisemitism is another issue for Knox as she challenges incumbent independent Spender.
“Without doubt, national security is a huge issue for this electorate and also personal security. We’ve got the largest number of Jewish people in this electorate of any electorate in Australia,” Knox said.
“And the Jewish people, in particular, our Jewish community have felt really abandoned by this government and many have felt very unsafe.”