The polls were unanimous that the leftist Labor Party was going to defeat the conservatives (confusingly called “The Liberal Party”) in yesterday’s election and take over the government of Australia. As with the inevitable Hillary Clinton presidency, the polls were wrong.

While any election is decided on multiple issues, especially in a continent-sized nation like Australia, most close observers believe that global warming policies, especially the move to close the massive Adani Coal Mine project in Queensland – the subject of enormous demonstrations – and skyrocketing prices for electricity made the difference.

PM Scott Morrison (YouTube screen grab)

Andrew Bolt of the Herald Sun (paywalled) writes:

This election is huge. Consider.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale:

This is a climate change election.

Labor leader Bill Shorten:

This election is all about climate change.

Guardian Australia editor Katherine Murphy:

2019 is the climate change election.

It was indeed, and they lost.

In Queensland, where Labor seemed set to stop the giant Adani coal project, Labor went from picking up an expected three or four seats to losing three instead.

(Adani will now almost certainly proceed. The Queensland Labor Government will be too scared to keep blocking it now. The massive anti-Adani protests have backfired.)

In the outer suburban seats of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, where poorer voters can't afford the higher power prices caused by global warming zealots, Labor's predicted swing evaporated.

This election has changed the climate. But it's the intellectual climate that's changed.

Bill Muhlenberg, an American living and writing in Australia:

Bill Shorten [Labor Party leader] seems to have lost the unlosable election. Everyone thought it was a shoo-in. Hardly anyone predicted a win for Morrison. But it has happened, stunning pundits and political observers alike.

As to the actual election details, this seems to be the current state of play: The Liberals appear to have won at least 74 seats so far out of 150 total seats in the lower house. A few more are expected to go their way in the hours ahead. The Libs got around 42 per cent of the primary vote, which is very good indeed. Around 33 per cent went to Labor and 10 per cent to the Greens.

Hmm, just a third of the electorate voted for Labor. That is a very telling figure. There was a 1.5 per cent swing to the Coalition around the country. There were five seats gained for the Libs, only one for Labor, and one for an independent. Queensland was especially strong for the Liberals and Nationals. The anti-Adani mine move backfired big time up there, with big wins for the Liberals and Nationals. (snip)

Common sense and a conservative mood prevailed in this election. All the loony climate change activism of Labor which would have cost Australia and Australians so very dearly economically and in other ways was clearly rejected by the Australian people.

People saw through the Labor spin, seeing Shorten for what he was: NOT a man of the people, but a wealthy, remote and removed elitist. He was a thorough-going leftist who would have done so much damage to Australia. The Australian people have said ‘no’ to that.

And this election was also a big win for religious freedom. As I and others documented countless times, a Labor win would have spelled the end of religious liberty, and would have resulted in a massive crackdown on Christians and Christianity especially. Now we can breathe a bit easier, but we still must be ever vigilant in this area.

Finally, it needs to be pointed out that one of the greatest highlights of the whole evening was to see all the leftist true believers commenting on ABC television get more and more glum and depressed as the night went on! That in itself was a huge plus!

In so many ways, this election reminds us of our last presidential race and its aftermath.

Our Australian friend John McMahon emails from Queensland:

Tanya Plibersek, the Deputy Leader of Labor, had promised, if Labor had won, that all state hospitals (Nationwide) would be compelled to offer free abortions. Whilst hospitals are under State control it is the Federal Government that provides the funding.

This is a landmark win for the Conservatives. The Liberal Party is now rid itself of the Lefties in its ranks and will now probably disrobe the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, of his party membership.

Morrison has performed a Trump-like win.

The Liberals will be forced to form a coalition to govern, which means that there will be great limits to its flexibility and powers. But a disaster has been avoided, pollsters and warmists rebuked, and religious liberty affirmed.