25-05-2025: A petition has been launched as a “vote of no confidence” in the results of the Australian federal election held on May 3. There are multiple grounds for questioning the outcome, which delivered a landslide victory for the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Arguably, the Albanese Labor government has been the worst in Australia’s history. This government has presided over the worst cost of living crisis ever, the worst housing crisis ever, it has literally attempted to censor the internet, wages have flatlined, climate fuelled disasters regularly batter the country, the economy is in recession and it is aiding a drive towards world war. Granted, the “opposition” Liberal/National Party coalition (LNP) was not substantially offering much better, and worse in some areas such as threatening to cut 41 000 jobs from the federal public service. Despite this, how did the ALP not only win the election, but gain such a huge majority of lower house seats that it is likely to stay in power until 2031?

Electoral fraud?

Was electoral fraud involved in the election results? The question must be asked. The vote of no confidence petition[1] primarily highlights the gob-smacking premature declaration of results on election night. The result of the election was made at around 8pm on the East Coast, barely two hours after polling booths had closed for the day, and while three states – Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory – were still in the process of voting! That is, votes had not even started being counted in half the country when it was declared that the ALP was the “winner”. This surpasses the previous federal election in 2022, when the ALP was then declared the “winner” on the first business day after the election, with only 72% of the vote counted and while they were still short of the required 76 seats to form government.[2] It is difficult to have confidence in such a process just on this part alone, but there are more concerns – such as the mishandling and transport of ballot papers.

In the New South Wales (NSW) seat of Barton, close to 2000 ballot papers went missing on election night. They were later recovered at the Sydney home of temporary Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) worker. While the AEC stated that the ballots had already been counted, and so could not affect the election result, they did not say why or how this had happened.[3] Indeed, members of the public were reporting that ballot papers were being transported in personal vehicles without proper security measures. Voter identification is also not required for Australian elections, with a proposal for it having been previously rejected. The continued use of pencils for marking ballots, without any voter ID, is an outdated practice and is easily susceptible for manipulation. There is plenty of time for potential manipulation, given the periods of pre-poll voting which now extend to two weeks. This was introduced during the fraudulent “Covid pandemic” of 2020-2022 to supposedly give vulnerable people a chance to vote where they might not otherwise be able to get to a polling station on election day. Apparently over 50% of voters cast their vote in pre-poll this election. This means that the pencil marked ballots need to somehow remain secure for up to two weeks prior to the election.

Multiple crises mount

Assuming there were no electoral irregularities – which is a huge IF – the ALP received 34.56% of the primary vote, its second lowest primary vote ever, with a swing of 1.98%. The combined LNP opposition primary vote was around 31.5%.[4] The ALP apparently won 94 seats, while the LNP opposition won 43. The Australian Greens lost all of their lower house seats apart from one, despite receiving just over 12% of the vote.[5] Advance Australia, funded by conservative billionaires, carried out a “Put the Greens Last” hit campaign, which also targeted Independent Senator David Pocock.[6] This may well have had an impact, although the Greens drew themselves towards the ALP in the lead up to the campaign, as they were virtually aiming for a Labor/Greens or Labor/Greens/Teals minority government. To do so, they side stepped on the demand to abolish AUKUS (Australia, the US, USA – an anti-China military alliance) with their own proposal to establish an Australian made missile and drone program. They also scaled down their support for Palestine in the face of Israel’s massacres.

More and more people in recent years are voting informal, or indeed not voting at all. These actions should largely be seen as a conscious boycott, as many believe – with ample grounds – that voting will not change anything substantial. Moreover, it is difficult to argue that politicians are in parliament out of genuine values. In June last year, federal politicians gained yet another pay increase in the middle of the worst cost of living crisis Australia has ever seen. The Prime Minister gained a pay rise of $21 000, and the Opposition leader and extra $15 000. The head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Glyn Davis, gained a pay rise of $34 000, placing his pay above one million dollars annually. This is in a context where the median wage for Australian workers is $67 000 annually.[7]

Many were aghast at the payout LNP leader Petter Dutton will “earn” in retirement after losing his seat in the election. As the Opposition leader, he will pocket a parliamentary pension of $258 000 per year, every year for the rest of his life! This means he will earn more for doing nothing than a sitting backbencher, who average $233 000 per year.[8] This is a form of official corruption. Under capitalism, the ruling class ensures that its marionettes do not in the least stray from maintaining the profit rates of the corporate magnates, no matter what the contradictions. Not only are they paid multiples of the average wage while in parliament, afterwards they continue to pocket incredible sums swiped directly from the taxpayers. This ensures that parliamentarians remain loyal to a vastly unequal society.

Aside from the cost-of-living disaster, unaffordable housing and stagnating wages, Australia’s politicians are hell-bent on serving as a vassal for a US led imperialist war on Russia, China and Iran. Millions of innocents will likely perish in the event of a world war, yet capitalism in the West is in such a dire crisis a major war is its only hope. The masses must dispense with a “parliament”, and create their own institutions of class rule, and win a workers’ republic. Private production for private profit has long since ceased to serve any progressive purpose and must now be supplanted by public ownership of the major means of production, administered through a planned economy. A genuine workers’ party is required to illuminate the path towards socialism and the end of war, poverty and inequality. 

Workers League

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

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[1] www.change.org/p/vote-of-no-confidence-3rd-of-may-federal-election-petition?source_location=search (21-05-2025)

[2] www.redfireonline.com/2022/06/04/who-won-the-australian-federal-election/ (21-05-2025)

[3] www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/aec-investigating-after-ballot-papers-missing-barton-sydney/105286812 (21-05-2025)

[4] www.tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HouseStateFirstPrefsByParty-31496-NAT.htm (21-05-2025)

[5] www.tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HousePartyRepresentationLeading-31496.htm (21-05-2025)

[6] www.rmit.edu.au/news/factlab/advance-australia-pocock-seselja1 (21-05-2025)

[7] www.au.finance.yahoo.com/news/607500-outrage-over-albaneses-huge-pay-rise-as-aussies-struggle-to-survive-?guccounter=1 (21-05-2025)

[8] www.msn.com/en-au/politics/government/the-eye-watering-sum-peter-dutton-will-continue-to-receive-after-being-booted-from-federal-politics/ar-AA1EiyGn (21-05-2025)

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