Catherine King has retained the seat of Ballarat in yet another comprehensive victory as the Labor party will return to power after nine years in opposition.
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Party faithful were celebrating at Trades Hall late on Saturday night as the Labor party surged in WA and looked like picking up the seats it needed for a majority.
The Coalition took a drubbing in its inner city heartland in Victoria with multiple independents likely to get up in Goldstein and Kooyong.
Along with the surge in Greens vote, including picking up seats in Queensland and Melbourne Ports, a LNP defeat looks imminent.
A strong Labor showing in Western Australia took Labor over the line and Anthony Albanese will be the 31st prime minister of Australia.
Outgoing prime minister Scott Morrison conceded defeat shortly before 11pm.
While counting has not concluded in many seats it seems likely Labor will gain the minimum majority of 76 seats to form a government.
The Courier called the seat of Ballarat with almost 25 per cent of the primary vote counted, with King opening up an unassailable lead.
King has held the Ballarat seat since 2001 and although there seems a slight swing against her in the primary vote at this point, she still holds the seat comfortably.
After the counting of 40,000 votes (out of a total of 110,704), King had received 44.23% of votes, followed by Liberal's Ben Green at 25.07% and the Greens' John Barnes at 15.76%.
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