Federal politics: Goldstein vote count narrows to 206 with incumbent Zoe Daniel trailing — as it happened

That's where we'll leave our live coverage for federal politics today. Thanks for joining us in what has been another busy week!

If you're keen on taking a look at those close vote counts in Goldstein and Bradfield, visit our election results page.

Make sure you join us on the blog again next week. Have a lovely weekend!

That's where we'll leave Afternoon Briefing.

If you missed it, you can catch up on the key moments below in our blog, or watch the episode back on ABC iview.

Former Liberal Party political adviser Kristy McSweeney has been asked whether Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has been put on a "glass cliff".

The term refers to when women are placed in leadership positions often during times of crisis in an organisation.

McSweeney says she doesn't like to use the term for this occasion, and that it discounts the fact women have led the Liberals at a state level.

She says the election of Ley to the leadership is "sensible" and will help the party define how it communicates to voters in the future.

"It's a sensible start to demonstrating to Australia that perhaps we are moving forward a little bit in terms of how we communicate, how we talk to voters, and how we want to reflect that we look more like the Australia they look at every day in their communities and in their workplaces," she says.

Former Liberal Party political adviser Kristy McSweeney has joined Afternoon Briefing.

She's been asked why there's resistance to gender quotas in the Liberal Party to increase female representation.

McSweeney says the Liberals should consider its own type of quota to achieve greater female representation in its ranks.

She says the Liberal Party should also look to better its economic narrative and speak to women in a clearer way about the issues that matter to them.

"We didn't communicate that properly and we didn't use women to communicate that, despite the fact that our whole Senate leadership team is women. So, women weren't visible in our campaign," McSweeney says.

Just before Anthony Albanese left Indonesia, he had a cute encounter with President Prabowo Subianto's cat.

After a quick cuddle at dinner, the PM gifted Bobby Kertanegara (who even has his own Wikipedia page!) a scarf that reads "Australia loves Indonesia".

Albanese later shared a post on X showing his dog Toto and Subianto's cat with matching red scarfs.

Take a look at the video posted on the president's YouTube page:

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi has been asked whether the minor party has veered too far away from some of its core issues and if it will refocus on environmental issues.

She says the Greens will be seeking to protect endangered species, oceans and native forests in the next parliament.

However, she says environmental and social issues, like the war in Gaza, are interlinked.

"There can be no climate justice without social justice, without economic justice or racial justice. We'll continue on with that," she says.

On nature positive laws, which were dumped in the last parliament, Faruqi says the Greens will sit down with the new minister Murray Watt and work constructively where needed.

"The planet and people cannot wait for tinkering around the edges. We need strong action, action that's bold and hopeful and transformative," she says.

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi has joined Afternoon Briefing today following the election of Larissa Waters as party leader.

Host Pablo Viñales has asked Faruqi whether Waters' promise to be "firm but constructive" in this term of parliament is a concession that the Greens were too obstructive in the last parliament.

She says while the Greens will work constructively and co-cooperatively when needed, the party won't be afraid to advocate for people and the planet.

"We saw how people were struggling. How people were struggling under the cost of living crisis. How people were struggling in the housing crisis and the climate crisis. We had to care for people and the planet," Faruqi says.

Faruqi says the Greens placed pressure on the government to reduce student debt and tackle price gouging at supermarkets.

She says the Greens will undertake a "detailed evaluation" of the election result and make changes where necessary.

Afternoon Briefing host Pablo Viñales has asked Amanda Rishworth what she wishes to achieve in her new employment and workplace relations portfolio.

She says her primary commitment is to fulfill Labor's election promises — the first of those a push for an increase to award wages.

Rishworth says the government will also look to legislate penalty rates into awards and ban non compete clauses for low and middle income workers.

"That is holding back workers from being able to move to other employers and to be able to earn more money. It's holding wages back and so that is also a real priority of mine," Rishworth says.

Amanda Rishworth has been asked whether the uncertain global economic outlook could impact inflation and therefore curtail a real wage increase.

Rishworth says Australia is not immune to global factors but says the government is working to reduce inflation and support people with cost of living.

"Acting responsibly by making sure that we keep being responsible around our budget settings and really continuing to put that downward pressure on inflation," she says.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth has joined Afternoon Briefing.

Today, the government announced it would be making a submission to the Fair Work Commission pushing for a wage increase for award workers.

Host Pablo Viñales has started by asking Rishworth how much of a wage increase is economically sustainable.

"We've put forward though a very principled position that there needs to be a real wage increase for Australia's lowest paid workers because they are doing it tough still under cost of living pressures," Rishworth says.

She says it will ultimately be a matter for the independent commission to decide what happens.

Asked what she thinks of calls from some employer groups that are calling for a 2.5 to 2.6 per cent rise, Rishworth says she thinks there's merit for low paid workers to get a pay rise above inflation.

The time has come! Afternoon Briefing with Pablo Viñales has started on ABC News. 

Follow along as we bring you all the updates here live on the blog.

Liberal candidate Tim Wilson is now certain of victory in the seat of Goldstein after the vote narrowed in the late stages of counting.

ABC chief elections analyst Antony Green says Wilson leads by 206 votes with just 260 votes left to count, assuring him of victory.

Approximately 90 per cent of registered voters turned out to vote in this year's federal election, according to data from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

The figures, released by the AEC today, show informal voting rates for the House of Representatives and Senate have largely remained stable at 5 per cent and 4 per cent respectively.

The AEC says the majority of the 10 divisions with the highest levels of informal voting are based in Western Sydney.

Turnout in the division of Lingiari, which takes in most of the Northern Territory, except for Darwin, is projected to be about 62 per cent.

This is part of a broader trend in declining turnout in that electorate, the AEC says.

The ABC's national political lead David Speers says there are still internal tensions within the Coalition about what went wrong in the election.

He says the Liberal and National parties are yet to come to an agreement moving forward.

Australia's Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope says it's very rare for votes, that are originally counted as formal, to be declared informal in close contests.

He says the Australian Electoral Commission works hard to ensure as many votes are included in the count.

While scrutineers (people who overlook the vote count on behalf of candidates) watch the counting process, Pope says it's ultimately up to a divisional officer to determine whether a vote is informal.

"We always look to try and make sure votes are included. We want to make sure every vote counts. We look at the voter's intentions," Pope says.

"Very rarely do you come across recount where votes have been included that are then ruled informal because by the time we get to that stage these votes have been counted three times potentially in the presences of scrutineers three times over."

He says about 5 per cent of votes nationally are informal, about the same as the last few federal elections.

Australia's Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope has told ABC Radio National Breakfast that if the vote margin is less than 100 in any given electorate, the AEC's policy is to do an automatic recount.

Pope says after the full distribution of preferences, candidates can come forward irrespective of the margin, and can put forward a case for a recount.

"What they really need to be focusing on is solid evidence for us to be considering about whether there's been any issues that have occurred during the counting process that could actually affect the outcome," Pope says.

Australia's Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope appeared on ABC Radio National Breakfast this morning, and says today is the final day postal votes can legally be admitted for counting.

Under the legislation, the cut off day for postal and overseas votes to be admitted for counting falls 13 days after polling day.

Pope says the AEC is expecting just a few thousand outstanding votes to come through today, including a few hundred expected to arrive from Nairobi tonight.

"We'll have staff potentially at Sydney Airport in the late hours of tonight before midnight trying to pick up some of these votes," Pope says.

He says once they've been processed and counted, the commission undertakes a full distribution of preferences.

Ha! Peter this made me cackle. You guys are too good.

Tim Wilson's lead in Goldstein is now down to 258 votes.

But with 500 votes left to count, chief elections analyst Antony Green says independent Zoe Daniel needs around 75 per cent of the outstanding votes to capture the lead.

Richard Marles has congratulated Larissa Waters on becoming leader of the Greens.

"We don't see eye to eye with the Greens. We have real differences," Marles says.

"It is a significant achievement for any person to lead their political party as Senator Waters is now doing ... We will see what her leadership brings," he says.