Australia opposition leader Dutton loses seat in shock vote defeat

By Alasdair Pal

Australia's opposition leader Peter Dutton said on Saturday he had lost his own parliamentary seat as he conceded his conservative Liberals had been defeated in national elections by the incumbent Labor Party.

Dutton said the results was historic for the Labor Party and that he had congratulated its candidate, Ali France, who defeated him in the seat of Dickson.

"Ali and I have been combatants for a number of elections now, but she was successful in Dickson tonight and she will do a good job as a local member," he said at a Liberal Party event in Brisbane.

Dutton had held the seat of Dickson in the northern state of Queensland with a margin of 1.7% at the last federal election in 2022.

Earlier on Saturday, broadcaster ABC forecast Dutton's opposition coalition had lost the election to the incumbent centre-left Labor Party.

Dutton, a former policeman with a reputation for being tough on crime and immigration, has been dogged by his perceived ideological closeness to U.S. President Donald Trump throughout the campaign.