Labor’s 34% primary vote produced a commanding 94-seat House majority at the 2025 federal election, according to final AEC results. Many Australians wonder how a 94-seat majority is possible with such a low primary count..
34% Primary Vote Meets Preferential Counting
The AEC tallied 5,354,138 first-preference votes for Labor, or 34.56% nationally.
The national two-party-preferred result settled at 55.22% for Labor and 44.78% for the Liberal–National Coalition. Preferential counting drives that gap. In the House, if nobody reaches 50% on first preferences, officials exclude the lowest candidate and distribute preferences until a candidate clears 50%. Only 11 electorates decided the result on first preferences alone, based on the AEC’s final list.
Greens Preferences Pushed Hard to Labor
In the AEC’s two-party-preferred preference-flow table, Greens voter preferences flowed 88.19% to Labor in Labor-versus-Coalition contests.
That pattern amplified Labor’s lead after minor candidates dropped out.
Sample House ballot paper showing numbered preferences, Australian Electoral Commission, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“Freedom” Parties Did Not Preference Labor Over The Coalition
Some people suspected that disillusioned “Freedom” voters may have sought to send a message to the Liberal Party by preferencing Labor over the Coalition. That doesn’t show up in the AEC counts.
The same AEC table shows several right-leaning minor parties’ voter preferences flowed mainly to the Coalition in Labor-versus-Coalition counts.
Preferenes from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation voters flowed 74.50% to the Coalition.
Gerard Rennick People First voters flowed 77.86% to the Coalition.
Family First voters flowed 64.98% to the Coalition. Those flows sit alongside a Labor majority in the final two-party count.
Why The Seat Tally Moved So Far
The House elects members seat by seat. A national primary share does not translate directly into seats.
The AEC’s final results show Labor won 94 of 150 seats, while the Coalition won 43.
In many electorates, preferences decided the winner after the first count, rather than a first-preference majority.
Labor’s 34% primary vote therefore tells only part of the story. The preference system and the final two-candidate contests determined the seat count.
