The election result must have been a shock to all those who predicted that Anthony Albanese would only last one term. Here’s a few pointers why this did not happen.

His opponents opposed their key policies, even though they were designed to relieve the major issue confronting the electorate, namely, cost of living. They went off on a tangent about the wonders of a futuristic nuclear policy and temporary fuel excise relief. They believed Sky-after-dark and internal polling when they were telling them they were on track for victory.

When Albanese gave, he was accused of over-spending, by an opposition that had produced nine deficits in a row. They had also given billions of dollars of handouts during Covid to companies that did not meet the requirements to receive that largesse. Some never returned the money.

When Albanese tried to be level-headed about the war in the Middle East he was accused by the Greens of committing genocide and by the Coalition of being anti-semitic. He was vilified for lying by those who had turned a blind eye to sports rorts, robo-debt, killing the weekend and stealing our utes. He was pilloried for daring to say that Peter Dutton had deprived Medicare when an examination of the records of his time as health minister shows that that was indeed the case.

Last, but not least, Dutton’s party failed to encourage more women into politics. The Coalition has only about 20% female representation in the House of Representatives. Today Labor has a majority of women MPs in the lower house.

But the opposition is not facing an existential crisis. Such is the nature of a good democracy. Annastacia Palaszczuk was left with a coterie of 7 MPs and yet she came back to win government in less than 3 years. It is now up to a battered federal Liberal party to pick up the pieces.