On election night Newtown’s King Street filled with spontaneous dancing and cheering in celebration of the end of nine years of Liberal and National party rule. These nine years saw the government pursue a harsh agenda of austerity, bigotry, climate devastation, and union busting which has been met with grassroots resistance (with no help from Labor) every step of the way. Now the Liberals have received their worst electoral results in the history of their party.

But this is no coronation for Albanese and the Labor party. Though the major parties have some policy distinctions, this election the Labor party played from a similar song book to the Liberals by pandering to racism and transphobia and supporting fossil fuels. This right wing strategy gave them their lowest vote since the Great Depression, as workers evidently have not rallied for Labor and they have lost some of what were once their safest seats. There has never been an elected government since the introduction of suffrage with such weak support from working class voters.

The Greens ran a clear campaign to kick out the Liberals, platforming climate action, better Medicare, and affordable housing, and are one of the winners of this election with their highest ever vote, a large factor in Labor’s “success.” They have also succeeded in winning Senate seats in every state, several lower house seats in Queensland, and have had massive swings in Lismore, Melbourne, Newcastle, Wollongong, and Adelaide including in fossil fuel communities. This is a clear repudiation of the idea that the reason working class people turned from Labor for being too supportive of climate action and queer rights. This result is an encouragement for the left, but will also create new challenges for the Greens rank and file with 16 federal parliamentarians to manage and more pressure than ever to professionalise. We must be clear that, despite their electoral success, the Greens cannot deliver wins for the working class of their own accord. These can only be won by workers taking direct action for themselves.

The independents were also massive winners of the election as they devoured the Liberals’ middle class base. Climate 200 Independents succeeded in 9 lower house seats – with Zali Steggal crushing Katherine Deves, the TERF Liberal candidate – and in the ACT Senate on a platform of milquetoast climate action, anti-corruption, women’s inclusion, and opposing the religious freedoms bill. Lambie also had a successful night in knocking off Liberal Senator Eric Abetz and having a strong swing across Tasmania.  Meanwhile in Fowler, Labor lost the ‘safe’ seat to a right wing independent after parachuting in Kristina Keneally and trying to pitch to the right of the Liberals on refugees. Racism, like transphobia, is not a vote winner.

The far right have also been shown as losers in this election, with a general swing against One Nation despite running in an increased number of seats. Hanson herself is currently at mild risk of losing her Senate seat to pro-drug decrim/anti-vaccination party Legalise Cannabis, which didn’t meaningfully campaign. Liberal defector Craig Kelly also came fourth in his seat, and despite a potential win of a Senate seat for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party in Victoria due to the crash in the Liberal vote, support has otherwise failed to truly grow in contrast to the slightly more progressive splits in the Liberals’ base.