A new book on the 2025 election reveals Labor’s commanding win – but also a fragmented electorate, a weakened opposition and a volatile political landscape.

It seems like an eternity since the Albanese government was re-elected in a startling landslide on May 3 2025; but it is just eleven months. Now we have an authoritative new book called Landslide, edited by Marian Sawer, Jill Sheppard and John Warhurst, published by ANU Press. It appears in time for the anniversary of Labor’s stunning victory.

A lot has happened since then in Australian and world politics. Anthony Albanese is the only one of the four major party leaders still in office. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Greens leader Adam Bandt lost their seats at the election. The Liberals have had two leaders since, first Sussan Ley and now Angus Taylor. Senator Matt Canavan now leads the Nationals in place of the ‘buggered’ David Littleproud.

Since then, Albanese has reconciled, but now fallen out with, US President Donald Trump, who has triggered extraordinary world turbulence in economics and politics from which Australia cannot escape. Most recently Trump has initiated with Israel another Middle East War. Last December we had the Bondi terrorist attack on the Jewish community and since then the creation of a Royal Commission into antisemitism and social cohesion. Former Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has defected from the Nationals to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, which itself has soared in the polls. Two rate rises and an oil crisis have exacerbated Australia’s existing cost of living pressures.

The last federal election was a landslide only in parliamentary seats, not in percentage of the vote. The editors and authors of Landslide were very aware of this contradiction. Disaffection with the two major political parties meant that the nation remains politically fragmented into thirds: one third Labor, one third Coalition, and one third Independents and minor parties. Counting the rise in One Nation, Independents and minor parties now make up more than one third.

Nevertheless, Albanese achieved a remarkable victory, and the Liberals were cut to ribbons in their worst ever defeat. The celebrated journalist Niki Savva has already described the shock in her book Earthquake: the election that shook Australia. The much-abused term, existential crisis, has been widely tossed around to describe the state of the Liberals. It might well apply to the nation as a whole. Earthquake and Landslide are complementary rather than competitive. The size and scope of Landslide means that it is able to offer comprehensiveness and extra detail that Savva does not aim for in her vibrant, insider’s take. Landslide can also be downloaded without charge either in full or by chapter.

A companion book, The First Albanese Government: governing in an age of disruption and division, edited by John Hawkins, Michelle Grattan and John Halligan, has already discussed the government’s strengths and weaknesses and given a hint of hyper-turbulent times.

_Landslide_ takes up the story and analyses the calamitous and inflexible Liberal campaign in stark contrast to Labor’s professionalism and poise, in which Albanese himself performed much better than he had in 2022. It is a big book of 20 chapters, featuring masses of tables, figures and plates, by almost 30 political experts from universities around Australia, both veterans and younger scholars. Many of the younger authors, like Mark Riboldi, Blair Williams, Kurt Sengul, Phoebe Hayman, and Emily Foley, are already well known as political commentators in their fields of expertise. Others like Carolyn Hendriks, Murray Goot and Carol Johnson are well-established figures. Some have written in this federal election series, sponsored by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, for decades. Remarkably, this latest book is the nineteenth in the federal election series.

Landslide covers demographic context and cultural developments; political parties and Independents; political campaigning and media, and the results. Its themes include the international and domestic context, the evolution of political campaigning, the rise and decline of political forces, the major issues, and digital and legacy media. Running right through many chapters is the Trump effect. The Liberals got too close to the Trump fire and suffered political damage. Labor benefited from an aura of stability in unpredictable times.

In the outcome Labor was up decisively, the Liberals were smashed, the Nationals hit a ceiling and the Greens lost badly in the House of Representatives but not the Senate. The Community Independents (Teals) consolidated, there were more Independent candidates than ever before, and One Nation won extra Senate seats. Among advocacy groups, conservative Advance was up and left-wing GetUP! was way down. The ACTU was quietly effective (though some doubted this positive evaluation) and business was just quiet.

The electorate was younger. Baby boomers were outnumbered for the first time, and every serious actor sought the vote of Gen X and Millennials through social media, influencers, podcasts, and various other digital campaigning techniques. This trend is one of the major themes explored.

We should learn from history, but the world has moved faster than ever. The next federal election in 2028 looms likely to be very different. The world of AI will be totally upon us. While a reader of Landslide will not be too surprised by continued domestic and international turbulence a year later, the extent has been unpredictable. The apparent surge of One Nation, for instance, which few predicted, has come with extraordinary speed. Australia is once again a land of disaffection, social fragmentation, rate rises and national cabinets. The national crisis is not just one of oil shortages. There is much more at stake.

 

Professor John Warhurst AO of the Australian National University is co-editor of Landslide: the 2025 Australian Federal Election, published by ANU Press