The results are in.

The people have spoken, and we have a new government. Congratulations to Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party on the result. Malcolm Turnbull also deserves congratulations for achieving, quite amazingly, a swing towards him in Wentworth despite all the rubbish he’s received over the pulp mill recently.

The people of Richmond have proven to be quite receptive to the libertarian message. I have polled (at time of writing) 1.61% of the primary vote, which is the highest of all LDP candidates for the lower house. In doing so I have out-polled the socially conservative Christian Democratic Party, the Democrats, and the Citizens Electoral Council. The ALP’s Justine Elliot has unsurprisingly retained the seat, so I offer my congratulations to her and her team. Full results are available at the AEC’s Virtual Tally Room.

Big thanks go out to all the people who came out in support of the LDP yesterday. I’d also like to thank the LDP executive (John Humphreys, David Leyonhjelm, and Terje Petersen in particular), LDP candidates, organisers, and donors across the country.

The LDP’s message is, to me, the only sensible and ethical one on offer. Less intrusive government and more individual choice is something that I think resonates with all people. When I think about how much more tax Australians are paying compared with ten years ago, and how much more money is wasted on corporate welfare and inefficient bureaucratic procedure, I see the LDP as the only alternative.

No one was expecting any kind of huge result for the LDP at the election. We’d only been registered a few months ago, and the Kevin Howard vs. John Rudd saga was drowning out all of the minor and micro parties in the media. Ultimately, this has been a chance to gain experience and insight. No doubt we will be looking carefully at what we did right and what we did wrong to build for future election challenges.

One thing I can say for certain is that this isn’t the last you’ll hear of the LDP.