The barbeques have been packed up and put away, the scrutineers are heading home for the night and the staffers who have worked 18 hours days, seven days a week for eight weeks are either rip rollickingly drunk or sound asleep.
For psephologists (that’s nerd talk for people who have perhaps too strong an interest in election results) though, it’s been a very big night.
No result tonight.
The thinking woman’s nerd crumpet, Antony Green says there won’t be a clear result tonight. The Labor Party have picked up a number of seats, the Nick Xenophon team have picked up one in South Australia, and there are many more too close to call.
As we head to bed, there is a strong possibility of a hung parliament.
This will place Malcolm Turnbull in a very tricky position. He will have to negotiate with the crossbenchers to form government and get the legislation that had triggered the double dissolution through a joint sitting of the parliament.
It will also have implications for Malcolm Turnbull's internal mandate in the Liberal party.
Turnbull's leadership was not strong to begin with, having compromised on issues he had previously been strong on; climate change and marriage equality, to win the Prime Ministership.
A weak election result will likely place his hold on the Liberal Party leadership in danger; Andrew Bolt called for his resignation less than four hours after the close of polls.
First female Indigenous member of the House of Representatives.
Linda Burney, leading figure of the NSW Labor party and former member of the NSW Upper House, has won the suburban Sydney seat of Barton. She will be sworn in as the first female Indigenous member of the House of Representatives.
Whatever your personal politics are, that's worth celebrating.
A minor independent party at the Greens house.
Public opinion polling in the lead up to Election Day showed strong movement towards the Greens, minor parties and independent candidates.
Long time candidate, Alex Bhathal is in a strong position to pick up the inner city Melbourne seat of Batman for the Greens, while Labor's Michael Danby could be in serious trouble from the Greens in his electorate of Melbourne Ports.
Top Comments
It's like destiny for the western world. Europe is divided, America is divided, Australia is divided. It's like the western world has come to a fork in the road and it doesn't know which way to head. And the division is between the have and have nots. It's the greed that is a wedge. I just wish people could live in harmony.....
We need a socialism society not a capitalism one.
Let's not act like anyone else in the world cares about Australia.
What an absolute farce. Turnbull called a double-dissolution election on the basis of the dire need for an anti-corruption commission to keep unions honest, then ran a two-month campaign where that issue barely raised its head, if at all.
What's clear from last night is that the electorate is not that fond of Abbott-MkII. I wonder how the real Malcolm would have polled, if he'd bothered to turn up in the campaign?
LNP would be history