3 hours Ago By Andrew Brown
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie is in danger of losing her place in parliament, as counting for the upper house comes down to the wire. Senator Lambie is in a close contest for the sixth and final spot among the state’s Senate seats with One Nation’s Lee Hanson, the daughter of party founder Pauline Hanson. The final spot could also be won by Labor, which secured a more than 8 per cent swing in Tasmania.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Deputy Nationals leader Perin Davey is also in a fight to keep her place in the Senate, with the Coalition suffering a 10 per cent swing against it in NSW. The loss of the Coalition’s Senate seat in NSW will be picked up by Labor, which will get three of the six slots in the state. As of Monday afternoon, Labor was on track to have 28 seats in the 76-seat Senate.
The Coalition is on course to claim 26 and the Greens 11, with the remainder going to the cross bench. The government would need 39 votes to pass its laws through the upper house. If the results stand, Labor would only need the support of the Greens to pass its agenda through parliament.
While it may be easier for the government to pass its legislation, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged the Senate to respect the backing from voters after Labor’s landslide win . He said his door was always open to members of the cross bench for negotiations. “We’ll continue to engage.
I will continue to respect people, like one of the conversations I’ve had is with Jacqui Lambie in Tasmania. Her result is still a little bit unclear, but she’s someone I respect,” he said. The Greens are on track to lose several of its seats in the lower house, but party leader Adam Bandt is toasting the success of his Senate candidates with a primary vote of just under 14 per cent.
“We’ve delivered a record high Senate vote, and all of our senators are being re-elected, some effectively with a quota in their own right,” he told reporters in Melbourne..
