Labor fails to close the deal in make-or-break state
The Morrison government looks to have limited its losses in Victoria to just three seats and remains in with a chance of picking up a seat.
As counting continues on Saturday night, Corangamite, Dunkley and Chisholm looked to have fallen to Labor but the Liberals still had a chance to regain Indi, in the state's north, which has been held by an independent for the past two terms.
Labor entered the last day of the election campaign needing to pick up Victorian seats to stand a chance of forming government with the electorates of Dunkley, Chisholm, Latrobe and Corangamite the key targets.
Labor's Libby Coker defeated Liberal Sarah Henderson in Corangamite with a swing of more than 2 per cent.
In Chisholm, Liberal Gladys Liu looks to have gone down to Labor challenger Jennifer Yang with a swing to the ALP of more than 5 per cent while in Dunkley, Liberal Chris Crewther has been defeated by Labor's Peta Murphy.
In Indi, Liberal Steve Martin is trailing independent Helen Haines by just 1 per cent.
The government was hoping that limiting its losses in the state to one or two seats could put it on a narrow path to re-election after fighting a defensive campaign over the past five weeks and frequent campaign visits from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Labor Leader Bill Shorten spent the day blitzing seats around Melbourne, including an appearance in the Liberal stronghold of Higgins, now under threat from both the Greens and Labor, reflecting the growing confidence in the ALP which went into the final day leading in all the polls.
The Liberals held on to the inner city strongholds of Higgins and Kooyong on the night, despite strong swings towards Labor.
Liberal operators were also left fuming after Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, which had a preference deal with the Liberals, failed to staff voting booths in key inner city seats including Kooyong and Higgins.
In the Mornington Peninsula seat of Flinders, Health Minister Greg Hunt held off challenges by Labor's Josh Sinclair and independent Julia Banks.
In the eastern suburbs seats of Deakin, Labor challenger Shireen Morris was defeated by sitting Liberal Michael Sukkar despite achieving a swing of more than 2 per cent.
Ms Morris started the day with news her posters had been defaced overnight with black spray paint so that she looked as if she were wearing a burqa.
“It’s extremely disappointing, it’s pathetic, it’s desperate,” she said. “Islamophobia of that kind should never be condoned. I think it’s very sad.”
Allegations of dirty tricks also marred polling day in Chisholm in the city’s east, with an Australian Electoral Commission investigation looking likely into posters that appeared at polling places that appeared to mimic official commission material and urged a vote for Liberal candidate Ms Liu.
Ms Yang said voters could easily have been be misled by the colour scheme of the Liberal Party posters and said, "It's just not right".
When asked about the posters, Ms Liu initially denied they belonged to her, or Chinese media outlet Melbourne Today, but then said they were authorised by the Liberal Party and allowed by the AEC.
In Kooyong, where Treasurer Josh Frydenberg saw off the Greens’ Julian Burnside and independent Oliver Yates, both challengers’ campaigns reported their candidates were followed around the electorate all day on Saturday by groups of men trying to disrupt and intimidate.
Senior Liberal sources reported a tough day on the booths in the blue-ribbon seat, held by a margin of 12.8 per cent, with voters expressing their anger at the Liberals’ performance in government in recent years.