
BREAKING NEWS Why Pauline Hanson is the surprise massive WINNER of the election
One Nation's Warwick Stacey won the sixth slot in NSW after the Australian Electoral Commission declared the results for the state on Friday.
Labor was expected to pick up the final seat in NSW, but a strong flow of preferences meant the One Nation candidate was able to get over the line.
It means Pauline Hanson 's party will have four senators in the next parliament, equalling its high watermark from 2016.
Mr Stacey will join Senator Hanson alongside re-elected Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts and the newly elected Tyron Whitten from Western Australia.
The other five senators elected from NSW included Labor's Tony Sheldon and Tim Ayres, Liberals Andrew Bragg and Jessica Collins as well as Mehreen Faruqi from the Greens.
Labor will have 28 senators in the 76-seat upper house, with the coalition having 27, the Greens with 11, One Nation with four and the remaining six being independents or from minor parties.
A total of 39 votes is needed to pass laws in the Senate, meaning Labor can ensure passage of bills with the support of just the Greens or the coalition.
It comes as the Australian Electoral Commission launched an investigation after almost half of all votes from a polling place were ruled as informal.
Of the 111 people who voted at a polling booth in Missabotti near Coffs Harbour in the seat of Cowper, 50 ballots for the lower house were filled out incorrectly.
Residents from the area told the ABC they were informed by election staff to number both ballot papers from one to six, despite there being 11 candidates.
Ballots for the House of Representatives must have all boxes numbered in order of preference to be deemed valid.
A minimum of six boxes must be filled out on the Senate ballot paper for the party of the voter's choice.
The high informal votes would not have affected the outcome in the seat, with Nationals MP Pat Conaghan winning by more than 5,000 votes.
'If the reports from Cowper are accurate and our staff were providing incorrect instructions, this is disappointing,' an electoral commission spokesman said.
'The AEC takes ballot paper formality very seriously - our intention is always to maximise the number of voters who are able to participate in a federal election by casting a formal vote.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Australian activists allege they were ‘brutalised psychologically' after Israeli military detained Gaza aid boat
Two Australian activists say they were 'brutalised psychologically' and treated 'like criminals' by the Israeli military, including being strip-searched, shackled and denied external communication, after a boat they were on was intercepted and detained while attempting to transport aid to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Journalist Tania 'Tan' Safi and human rights activist Robert Martin were among 21 activists on board the Handala when it was intercepted on Sunday and transported to Israel. It had carried food, baby formula, nappies and medicine, as Palestinians continue to starve in what UN-backed hunger experts have called a 'worst-case scenario of famine' unfolding. Sign up: AU Breaking News email On Friday morning local time, the Australians landed at Sydney airport after spending days in Israeli custody. Safi told reporters they were still 'a little bit wobbly' and felt 'very sore and weak'. The Handala crew had previously confirmed they would go on a hunger strike if the IDF intercepted the boat and detained its passengers. 'It feels like a bit of a dream at the moment to be honest … it's been a rough ride,' Safi said. 'We were dehydrated and exhausted. We've been disconnected from the world.' Safi said at least 30 IDF members boarded Handala when it was intercepted, and claimed all were armed, some with four guns. 'They knocked me in the leg with one of their machine guns,' Safi said. 'They were playing this odd psychological game of offering water and food with the camera crew, trying to get us to accept things from them, but none of us would. 'We don't want to take anything from an entity that is starving babies to death.' Safi said after arriving at the port of Ashdod, about 40km south of Tel Aviv, their bags were taken and they were placed in an interrogation room. Many items were still missing, she said. They confirmed reports that US labor activist Chris Smalls was physically assaulted by the IDF – including being choked and kicked in the legs. 'Chris, the only black man, was pinned down by seven or eight men,' Safi said. 'When I asked about him they came into the room and dragged me out by my arms, I'm still bruised from it. 'They pulled me out and threw me down on the floor, they made me take off all my clothes, they strip-searched me right there, made me squat up and down … they treated us like we were criminals.' Eventually Safi said they were able to see someone from the Australian embassy, who lobbied for the pair to be able to contact their friends and family and to access legal representation. 'In these prisons, we saw face-to-face the soullessness and the cruelty and brutality,' Safi said, adding that they had awoken to the sounds of a fellow inmate 'howling and screaming and crying in pain'. 'There were moments where they would handcuff me and grab the handcuffs and just throw me against the wall.' Martin said he had been 'manhandled' along with a few others when initially demanding legal representation. 'We had no rights … I have a lot of medication, they didn't allow any medication at all,' he said. 'The Australian government demanded I be able to make phone calls to my loved ones, they did not allow me to do that either, and anybody else.' Eventually, Martin said, the pair were shackled and transported from Tel Aviv to Jordan. In Jordan, they received assistance from the embassy and were taken to hospital, where they were temporarily deemed unfit to fly due to their weak condition. 'We thought they were going to just dump us there, that was very, very scary for us not knowing, having no phone, no money, no access to anything,' Martin said. Safi said they didn't realise how poor their condition was until they were hooked up to the IV in hospital and told they were 'really unwell'. 'I just passed out and slept for like 16 hours,' Safi said. 'I couldn't sleep [in prison] … they shine the torch in your face until you wake up, or they bang on the door every time you fall asleep. 'We did not commit any crimes. They tried to get us to sign documents that said we had entered Israel illegally, which is not true … we were taken completely against our will and brutalised psychologically in every way.' The last boat sent by Freedom Flotilla, the Madleen, was intercepted by the Israeli army in international waters on 9 June and towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod. It carried 12 campaigners on board, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who were eventually expelled by Israel. In 2010, nine flotilla activists en route to Gaza on board the Mavi Marmara flagship vessel were shot a total of 30 times by Israeli soldiers. Five were killed by close-range gunshot wounds to the head. The Israeli embassy in Canberra and Israeli ministry for foreign affairs were approached for comment.


The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Five Labor MPs defy NSW premier and vow to attend pro-Palestine march across Sydney Harbour Bridge
Several New South Wales Labor MPs have defied their premier, Chris Minns, by vowing to march across Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of Gaza this weekend as police attempt to challenge the protest in court. Labor's Stephen Lawrence, Anthony D'Adam, Linda Voltz, Cameron Murphy and Sarah Kaine were among 15 NSW politicians who signed an open letter on Thursday evening calling on the government to facilitate 'a safe and orderly event' on Sunday. Police were due to oppose the protest in the NSW supreme court on Friday afternoon. If successful, that move would strip protesters of certain legal protections and leave them vulnerable to arrest if they decided to proceed with a so-called 'unauthorised' march. Lawrence said the state's 'slow and steady demonisation of protest' risked repeating the events which led to Sydney's first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras march in 1978 being met with police violence. In a statement posted on Facebook on Friday morning, Lawrence criticised 'the passage of laws that allow police to be used to end protests the government doesn't like'. 'We have seen in these respects one long, unprincipled capitulation to reactionary politics and it is dangerous,' the Labor MLC said. 'I am a member of the Labor party, not the Liberal party. Our party is founded on protest and collective action. Attending is my way of sending a message that, in my view, we need to change course.' Lawrence said while the circumstances of the protest were 'not ideal', the event had become 'absolutely inevitable' which he said was 'largely because of the way it has been mishandled'. He said he wanted to attend Sunday's march to express his 'utter revulsion' at Israel's actions – which he said other countries, including Australia, had provided cover for. The other NSW parliamentarians who signed the letter calling on the government to allow the march over the harbour bridge were independents Alex Greenwich and Jacqui Scruby and the Greens' Jenny Leong, Tamara Smith, Kobi Shetty, Sue Higginson, Cate Faehrmann, Abigail Boyd and Amanda Cohn. Libertarian John Ruddick was also on the list. Greenwich, the state MP for Sydney, said he shared the 'widespread community horror' over what was happening in Gaza and said marching across the bridge would send a powerful message of solidarity. 'Having successfully lobbied the previous Coalition government to allow a march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of LGBTQ equality during Sydney WorldPride, I know it can be done,' he said in a statement. On Tuesday afternoon, the deputy police commissioner Peter McKenna announced the force had rejected an application from the protest organisers proposing a route across the Harbour Bridge to the US consulate, citing safety risks as the reason. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion He said at the time, police were open to negotiating alternative routes. However, the protest organisers, the Sydney-based Palestine Action Group, said in a statement that the protest 'must go ahead' and vowed to fight in court for their right to stage a protected protest. The premier on Friday morning said he expected 'everybody in NSW to respect the outcome of the court's decision'. 'I acknowledge there's a lot of people in Sydney, in NSW, that want to be part of a protest,' Minns told reporters. 'They're very concerned about what's happening in Gaza to Palestinians and they want to be heard.' Minns said people who were planning to participate in the protest would still have 'every opportunity to be heard' even with an alternative route. Earlier in the week, he suggested a march over the bridge would cause the city to 'descend into chaos'. Sydney's weekly pro-Palestine rallies have typically involved marches through the CBD. A march across the Harbour Bridge could still go ahead on Sunday if even the court sides with police but protesters could face being arrested under anti-protest laws if they obstructed traffic, for example.


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
From Palestine to jobseeker and keeping children safe online: Tanya Plibersek on Labor's tough calls
Tanya Plibersek, one of Labor's most recognisable political figures and the minister for social services, joins us as the government faces big decisions at home and abroad. Chief political correspondent Tom McIlroy speaks to her about the push to recognise Palestinian statehood, the jobseeker rate and the urgent fight to keep children safe online