Who’ll be next through the revolving door? Australian voters head to the polls

Australians headed to the polls on Saturday hoping to put an end to a revolving door of leadership which has seen them with four different prime ministers in five years. They lined up to cast their votes in a contest which is too tight to call and likely to leave neither major party with a clear majority. Morag McCrone, who voted for Labor at a polling station in Sydney, acknowledged her choice could lead to yet another new prime minister, but couldn’t bring herself to vote for prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s conservative coalition. “Internationally, it’s embarrassing,” she said of the endless stream of leadership changes. “It’s a bit like ancient Rome at times, really.”

I’m getting a little bit sick of it. Not to say that John Howard was a great prime minister, but it was good to have someone who was at the helm for a period that wasn’t two (or) three years

Labor supporter Beau Reid

Mr Turnbull called the election to try to get a clear majority to force through his economic reforms. It followed a period of turmoil in Australian politics which has seen a succession of leaders come and go with indecent haste. Both the prime minister and opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten say they will bring stability to the political scene. But with polls showing the two parties locked in a dead heat, it means the independents and the Greens could well win enough seats to hold he balance of power in the Senate or force a minority government in the lower house.

The alternative is the chaos, the uncertainty, the dysfunction, higher deficits, higher debt, higher taxes, less investment, less jobs

Malcolm Turnbull

australia election