Australia news as it happened: Price says people ‘would love to see’ her as PM; Ley becomes Opposition leader; Goldstein, Bradfield votes close

A few hours later, Smith provided some extra context on his own Facebook page.

“Through to today, the AEC have been undertaking a complex count on a three-candidate preferred basis (between Labor, Liberal and Independent),” he wrote.

“The AEC have this afternoon declared they are now moving forward with a two-candidate-preferred count between myself and the Liberal Party to determine the outcome - so just a little more waiting to go folks.”

Elsewhere, Calwell in northern Melbourne and Longman in Queensland are also too close to call.

In Longman, sitting Liberal MP Terry Young now leads by just 162 votes over the ALP’s Rhiannyn Douglas.

This happened despite the party’s primary vote largely holding up (11.94% of first preferences, a decrease of 0.31%).

The party will elect its next leader on Thursday.

Ms Watson-Brown, who said the party would examine where it went wrong, pledged to continue the work of her former colleagues.

“It might be a little bit lonely on the floor,” she told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday.

“I am desperately going to miss my mates. They were incredible.”

With AAP

However, analyst Ben Raue of The Tally Room said the late surge to Daniel in the count was unlikely to get her over the line.

“I suspect she will probably do a bit better on absentee and pre-polls than she was on the postals, but I suspect it is probably too late,” he said.

“I suspect nothing is going to change in Goldstein. I think it is probably not enough.”

Here are the details of votes still to be counted:

• 571 postal votes are still waiting to be counted with more set to arrive during the week until the deadline on Friday. A total of 24,299 postal votes were issued with 21,053 returned. Some will never be returned.
• 1625 declaration pre-poll votes: These were cast at pre-poll centres outside a voter’s home division and need to be verified before they can be counted. 2068 declaration pre-poll votes have already been counted.
• 1035 absentee votes: Cast on election day by people voting outside their enrolled electorate, these are verified and sent back to the correct division. 3000 absentee votes have already been counted.
• 195 provisional votes: These are from voters whose eligibility wasn’t certain at the time of voting. They’re only counted if the voter is later confirmed to be eligible. About half of these have been counted but the other half remain.

That brings us to a total of 3426 votes still outstanding as of 3.30pm Tuesday.

Follow our extensive coverage of the Victorian hot seats here.

The allegations include that more than $120,000 in reimbursements was claimed without evidence of relevant business expenses.

Asmar has privately denied the allegations she misappropriated funds.

HSU counsel Malcolm Harding, SC, told the court the HWU had unravelled after March 2024 when Asmar received notice of that investigation, allegedly triggering a series of reprisal staff sackings that left the branch unable to function, and which now required it to be placed into administration.

It was also revealed Asmar had received a notice from the commission on April 26, 2025, to notify her it was investigating “credible information” that she had sacked HWU staff, including senior organiser Jake McGuinness, in reprisal for acting against her.

Representing Asmar, Jonathon Moore, KC, asked the court not to make comment about allegations of the misappropriation of funds for printing, nor of reprisal sackings, to avoid prejudicing the Fair Work Commission’s civil prosecution.

Justice Craig Dowling has reserved a decision about whether to place the HWU in permanent administration.