Labor has stormed to victory in the federal election and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will lead a government with a vastly increased majority following a disastrous night for the Coalition and Peter Dutton.

At 8.24pm, less than half an hour after the final polls closed in Western Australia, 9News projected Labor had won the election.

”Nine projects the election is won by Labor,” political editor Charles Croucher said.

“There is no path for the Liberal Party or the Coalition to win. Albo gets a second go and Labor wins the election.”

Barely an hour later, Dutton took to the stage, conceding both the election and his own seat of Dickson to Labor.

As of 11pm, Nine projects Labor has won a remarkable 90 seats, far surpassing even the most red-tinted polling before election day.

Should that number hold, it will be Labor’s largest-ever seat total at a federal election, handily beating the 86 under Bob Hawke in 1987 and the 83 Kevin Rudd managed in 2007.

“We didn’t do well enough during this campaign. That much is obvious tonight and I accept full responsibility for that,” Dutton said.

“Earlier on, I called the prime minister to congratulate him on his success tonight. It’s a historic occasion for the Labor Party, and we recognise that.

“I congratulated the prime minister and wished he and (fiancee) Jodie and (son) Nathan all the very best.

“And I said to the prime minister that his mum would be incredibly proud of his achievement tonight, and he should be very proud of what he’s achieved.”

For Albanese, the first Australian prime minister to be re-elected after serving a full term since John Howard in 2004, he celebrated the result as a vindication of his tightly run campaign, and of the last three years of Labor government.

“Today, the Australian people have voted for Australian values, for fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all,” he said.

“For the strength to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need.

“Australians have voted for a future that holds true to these values, a future built on everything that brings us together as Australians and everything that sets our nation apart from the world.

“In this time of global uncertainty, Australians have chosen optimism and determination. Australians have chosen to face global challenges.”

From early on, it was clear the Coalition had no chance of getting the swings needed to pick up the key seats required to form government.

Instead, it was Labor gaining significant swings across the country, from Leichhardt in Far North Queensland to Bennelong in Sydney and Bass in Tasmania.

With 55 per cent of the vote counted, Labor’s primary vote was sitting at 34.67 per cent – a swing of more than 2 per cent.

The Coalition, meanwhile, was languishing at under 31 per cent, a drop of more than 4 per cent from 2022.

But at the same time, the primary vote for both major parties was low, with more than a third of the country voting for the Greens, independents and other minor parties.

“The domination between the blue and the red is no more,” Nine national affairs editor Andrew Probyn said.

For the Greens, though, the night was a disappointment.

The party is set to lose all three of the inner-Brisbane seats it won in 2022, and even Adam Bandt’s previously safe seat of Melbourne is too close to call with more than 50 per cent of the vote counted.