Okay let’s take a crack at this. I’m going to attempt to live blog the New South Wales state election. Polls close at 6:00pm Sydney time, which is 12:00am PST, 3:00am EST. Since it’s going to be very late in the morning for me I’ll cut off the live blogging around 8:00pm Sydney time, 2:00am PST. But it is expected that if the polls are correct, we should know within an hour of the polls closing if the Coalition has won government.
3:19am PST (9:19pm AEST): Last update for this blog. Coalition has won 65 seats, Labor 16 seats. Labor will be in the wilderness for at least 8 years. And if you stumble upon this diary, just start reading from the bottom.
3:15am PST (9:15pm AEST): Former Labor premier Bob Carr says Labor could of won tonight. Riiiiight. And I’m the King of England.
3:09am PST (9:09pm AEST): Kristina Keneally announces she will step down as Labor Party leader. Says another leader needs to lead the party in the wilderness. Good thing John Robertson got elected to the seat of Blacktown tonight.
3:07am PST (9:07pm AEST): Foley: 1/3rd of Labor voters voted for the Coalition today. Most of those 1/3rd had never voted Liberal until today. Coalition has won 64 seats, projected to win 70. Labor has won 15 seats, projected to win 20.
3:01am PST (9:01pm AEST): Kristina Keneally delivering her concession speech now.
2:57am PST (8:57pm AEST): Balmain is a three way race between the Greens, Labor and the Liberals. The Liberals are leading in the primary vote right now with the Greens and Labors in a dead heat with each other.
2:52am PST (8:52pm AEST): Kristina Keneally will concede the election around the top of the hour.
2:49am PST (8:49pm AEST): Foley bemoans the fact that the Labor’s best leadership talent for the next twenty years will be former Premiers (Kristina Keneally & Nathan Rees).
2:42am PST (8:43pm AEST): After saying “Amazing” for the 1 millionth time, Berejiklian noted that the Coalition has made major inroads in Labor Heartland like the Illawara and Western Sydney.
2:33am PST (8:33pm AEST): Kristina Keneally will not concede the election for at least another hour. This is for respect for Earth Hour.
2:24am PST (8:24pm AEST): Carmel Tebbutt is the comeback kid! She’s probably going to beat Greens candidate Fiona Byrne who Foley termed a “disaster” because of her role in the Marrickville boycott of Israel. While the seat of Balmain is on a knife’s edge with the Greens just narrowly ahead.
2:12am PST (8:12pm AEST): Berejiklian happy that the Liberals could most likely pick up the seat of Campbelltown, a seat they themselves thought they couldn’t win. To imagine how bad Labor is losing right now, think of last year and imagine if Democrats had lost every marginal seat in the House and a boatload of VRA and super super safe house seats.
2:08am PST (8:08am AEST): Upper House Labor MP Luke Foley, “The Labor Heartland is gone.”
2:01am PST (8:01pm AEST): Liberals pick up the seat of Drummoyne which was held by Labor MP Angela D’Amore who was barred from running again after being found guilty on corruption charges. Coalition has won 60 seats, Labor 13. While in Blackdown, John Robertson who’s been tapped to become the next leader of the Labor Party is leading in the primary count right now. Polls had shown a close fight here.
1:57am PST (7:57pm AEST): Watching the two seat that the Greens are trying to win, Marrickville and Balmain, the Greens candidates are leading in the primary vote but ABC News has projected Labor holds on both seats. Quite confusing.
1:50am PST (7:50pm AEST): Roads Minister David Borger (who was caught covering his party affiliation on his campaign signs with sticky notes) is in a dead heat with Liberal Candidate Tony Issa. ABC News is projecting he will be reelected at the moment.
1:29am PST (7:29pm AEST): ABC Election Analysis Anthony Green comments that right now the Coalition will have a 49 seat majority in the new Parliament. Kristina Keneally is back in the lead by double digits in Heffron with 11.2% swing towards the Liberal party. As of now, Labor has won 9 seats, Coalition 60. There is a 17.1% swing against Labor with 12.1% of the vote counted.
1:26am PST (7:26pm AEST): Shadow Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian comments that former Premier Nathan Rees will probably hold this seat of Toongabbie thanks to Greens preferences. Labor at 9 seats, Coalition 57, Greens 0.
1:22am PST (7:22pm AEST): Looks like the Australian Greens may not pick up any seats at all. There is only a 3-4% swing against Carmel Tebbutt in Marrickville and Labor and the Liberals are in the top two in the primary vote right now in the seat of Balmain.
1:15am PST (7:15pm AEST): About 2% of the vote counted in Premier Keneally’s seat of Heffron….she’s down six points to the Liberal Candidate on the 2PP count.
1:11am PST (7:11pm AEST): Labor MP Noreen Hay lost her seat to an independent. What’s so startling about that? Labor carried that seat by a 24% margin in 2007.
1:06am PST (7:06pm AEST): It’s over. Barry O’Farrell is the new Premier of New South Wales. The Coalition sits on 45 seats (2 away from a majority), Labor at 6.
1:04am PST (7:04pm AEST): The cover of tomorrow’s Sunday Telegraph: http://twitpic.com/4dejz3
12:58am PST (6:56pm AEST): Labor commentator on ABC News says Carmel Tebbutt is only suffering a 5% swing against her towards the Greens at the moment. Liberals have picked up the seat of Strathfield from Labor in a massive swing of 30.7% (based on one polling booth.) Labor is now at 4 seats won, 33 for Coalition.
12:52am PST (6:52pm AEST): Check the latest results here. Coalition is at 31 seats, only 15 away from an outright majority.
12:47am PST (6:47pm AEST): Coalition has picked up the following seats: Dubbo, Bathurst, Kiama with a massive swing of 24% towards the Coalition.
12:44am PST (6:44pm AEST): Labor at 3 seats, Coalition at 18. Coalition has picked up the seat of Lake Macquaire and Strathfield.
12:39am PST (6:39pm AEST): Labor at 3 seats won, Coalition 15. ABC News has projected Labor has lost the seat of Mulgoa (15.4% swing to the Liberals). Liberals are leading the Labor seat of Londonberry with a 9.0% swing to the Liberals. Election Analysis Anthony Green saying a massive swing against Labor is going on statewide.
12:34am PST (6:32pm AEST): Labor has won 3 seats so far. Coalition 6 seats. ABC News has lifted their Geo block on their video feed. So you can watch the election coverage on their site now.
12:09am PST (6:09pm AEST): NSW Electoral Commission will start posting its first results in 20 minutes. Catch you then. ABC NewsRadio is reporting that Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt who’s seat is threatened by Greens candidate Fiona Byrne is going to make some sort of address to her supporters within the hour.
12:00am PST (6:00pm AEST): Polls are now officially closed in New South Wales. Sky News exit polling shows a 21% swing against the Labor Party. It’s about 3% larger than most polls have predicted. If this is true, every single Labor seat is at play tonight.
Not much else to say.
How did Labour let it get this bad in NSW?
with the national government holding office by one or two votes?
With that much control comes a lot of responsibility, there isn’t a whole lot of room to blame the opposition. It will be interesting to see how things turn out.
This will especially be important if the LP overreaches as they are hinting.