Voters head to the polls to elect Australia's next government
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Voting booths open across the country as Australia elects its next government.
Gaza-bound aid activists attacked by a drone in international waters.
And in sport, surfer Stephanie Gilmore prepares to compete in the Gold Coast Pro. After five weeks of campaigning Australians head to the polls to decide the nation's political future with millions of voters casting a ballot today. A final YouGov poll of more than 3000 people released on today puts Labor in the box seat to form majority government. The poll reveals Labor is ahead 52.2 per cent to 47.8 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. The YouGov poll also revealed 38 per cent of those surveyed had cast their ballot during the pre-poll period. Labor goes into election day with 78 seats, while the coalition have 57 in the 150-seat House of Representatives. A majority of 76 seats is needed for a party to form government. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told SBS News that Australians can't trust that the Coalition won't impose new restrictions on pensioners who travel overseas. He says Coalition costing documents released on Thursday show the LNP plans to impose cuts on some pensions. "Including, of course, if pensioners go overseas for four weeks, then they'll have their pensions suspended. Now that will impact many of your listeners, elderly Greek Australians, Italian Australians, Portuguese Australians, so many Australians who do share their time between Australia and the country of their birth." Opposition leader Peter Dutton denies this, telling S-B-S the Coalition has no plan to change payments to pensioners based on overseas travel. "It's just completely false, and I think it's actually shameful that the prime minister would seek to scare older Australians. It's just another lie out of this campaign, unfortunately, and I've really made a focus on talking about our positive plan, and this is just a frankly misleading comment from the prime minister, and it's designed to scare people on the eve of an election." A ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists headed for Gaza has been bombed by drones in international waters off Malta. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition NGO uploaded footage showing a fire on one of its ships and accused Israel of the attack. Israel has so far not responded to these claims. The Maltese government says the 12 crew members and four civilians on board are safe. SBS spoke to Australian activist Surya McEwan who was due to join the Gaza aid ship and he says if the strike occurred hours later he would have been onboard. "It was shocking to all of us but we've had that feeling of being shocked by the atrocities that are happening over and over and over again for the last couple of years so maybe we shouldn't have been so shocked. It was a surprise though. Our intention today was to take a small crew out to tend to the injuries of those onboard and to assess the damage to the ship. The Maltese military intervened and we weren't able to get onto the ship." Nigel Farage's populist, right-wing Reform UK party has won a parliamentary seat in northwest England by the smallest ever margin in a parliamentary by-election in the country's history. Reform's Sarah Pochin beat Labour's candidate by just six votes in Runcorn and Helsby which had previously been a safe Labour seat with the party winning more than half the area's votes in last year's national election. The anti-immigration party also saw significant local wins, electing two regional mayors in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire. Party leader Nigel Farage says the wins are a sign of bigger things to come for Reform. 'This is phenomenal. We've got swings going on towards Reform, massive swings from Conservatives in Staffordshire, massive swings from Labor happening in Doncaster, happening right here in one of their safest seats in the country. So it's a big exciting night for us." Germany's domestic intelligence agency has classified the far-right Alternative for Germany party as an extremist threat, despite the party winning the second largest number of votes in February's federal election. The move will enable authorities to monitor the party more closely, including by using secret methods like recruiting confidential informants and intercepting communications. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says the party pursues efforts against Germany's democratic order. "Their nationalist attitude is shown in racist remarks, especially against immigrants and Muslims. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has a clear legal mandate to combat extremism and protect our democracy, and it operates independently." Stephanie Gilmore says the competitive fires are still burning as she prepares to return to the World Surf League where she will take on rivals almost half her age. As an eight-time world champion and six-time winner of the Gold Coast Pro - which gets underway this weekend - Gilmore has nothing left to prove.
But the 36-year-old says the drive to compete has never gone away, which is why she's making a one-off appearance at the Gold Coast Pro before returning full-time to the tour next year.
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