Trump congratulates conservative Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on a ...

President Trump has extended his congratulations to Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, after his surprise election win over Labor leader Bill Shorten on Saturday.

Morrison, who was considered a serious underdog in the race, defied opinion polls and betting markets to emerge victorious in the election – a result that even he dubbed ‘a miracle’.

He credited the force behind the unexpected win to a populist wave – the ‘quiet Australians’, as he called them - which is a phenomenon that similarly upended politics in Great Britain in the Brexit referendum, and in the US, when Donald Trump unexpectedly cemented his claim to the White House.

No stranger to being considered an outsider in the polls, Trump tweeted in support of Morrison on Saturday afternoon, saying: ‘Congratulations to Scott on a GREAT WIN’.

At the stroke of midnight, runner-up Bill Shorten confirmed he would be resigning as Labor leader after almost six years heading-up the party and fighting a campaign based on a big-spending health and education agenda and tackling climate change.

'I know that you're all hurting and I am too,' he told his supporters in Melbourne.

'It's obvious Labor will not be able to form the next government. This has been a tough campaign, toxic at times.

'Whilst I intend to continue to serve as the member for Maribyrnong, I will not be a candidate in the next Labor leadership ballot.'

Shortly afterwards Morrison delivered a midnight victory speech praising God and the Australian people.

‘I have always believed in miracles and I'm standing with the three biggest miracles in my life tonight and tonight we've been delivered another one,' he said, next to his wife Jenny and their daughters Abbey and Lily.

Labor struggled to pick up enough seats even in Melbourne, in Mr Shorten's home state of Victoria, and has lost electorates in Brisbane, north Queensland, western Sydney and Tasmania.

Mr Shorten's big-target strategy backfired, with voters rejecting his plans to curb negative gearing tax breaks for investor landlords, deprive share-owning retirees of franking credits and slash carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton secured a swing to him in his northern Brisbane seat of Dickson, as Queenslanders swung political baseballs bats against Labor right across the state.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said Labor had little hope of even forming a minority government, with Labor failing to pick up any marginal seats in Perth.

To form a minority government the Coalition may have to rely on new climate change action independents Zali Steggall, a former Winter Olympian who defeated former prime minister Tony Abbott in Warringah, and Helen Haines, who won an historic victory in the northern Victorian electorate of Indi.

The Nationals had strong swings to them in north Queensland based on their support for the Adani coal mine, which could complicate a power-sharing arrangement.

'At this stage, we think the Morrison Government has been re-elected. We can't see an alternative to a Morrison Government in the numbers we're seeing at the moment,' Mr Green said.

'We can't say whether the Government will be in a majority or minority, but we're certainly seeing enough numbers to say that the Coalition will end up with more seats than Labor.'  

Mr Green said the result was a 'spectacular failure of opinion polls' with the upset representing the first occasion since 2004 that a federal government has enjoyed a swing towards it.

The Labor's qualified support for the Adani coal mine in Queensland's Galilee Basin has boosted the Nationals in their most marginal seats, with swings of 12 per cent to it in Dawson and Capricornia, centred around Mackay and Rockhampton.

Former Liberal prime minister John Howard, who won that election, said voters had rejected Labor's 'politics of class division'.

'I did believe very strongly Bill Shorten had overplayed his hand on the class warfare,' he said.

'Australians believe in egalitarianism.'

Ironically, the Coalition had not won a Newspoll since 2016 and Labor had won 55 consecutive Newspolls going into the election.

This included a period which saw Malcolm Turnbull replaced in August as prime minister after the Liberal Party's right-faction revolted against his energy policy.

Labor, so far, appears to have only gained the NSW South Coast seat of Gilmore, where the Liberal Party was running former Labor national president Warren Mundine.

It is struggling to even pick up Chisholm in Melbourne's south-east where sitting member Julia Banks had quit the Liberal Party to sit as an independent, failing to secure the necessary three per cent swing to take it off the Liberal Party.

Labor earlier had an outside chance of winning Boothby, in Adelaide's south, with a swing of 3.2 per cent towards it - in a seat the Liberal Party has held since 1949.

Having now lost two elections, he will most likely to be replaced as Labor leader, six years after he beat left-faction contender Anthony Albanese, even though his opponent had more support from party members in a postal ballot.

'Tonight is an outcome that is disappointing,' Mr Albanese told his supporters in Sydney's inner-west.

'We seek to form government to change the country and we shouldn't be shy about that.

'We have had a redistributive agenda in order to fund schools, hospitals and public transport.'

Outlining a possible new tilt for the leadership, Mr Albanese declared he had never put himself before the party, arguing a Labor government was needed to address 'economic power, political power and social power' to 'stand up for the interests of working-class people'.

His Sydney-based deputy Tanya Plibersek is another possible leadership contender and blamed preferences from One Nation and mining magnate Clive Palmer's United Australia Party for the poor result in Queensland.

'It's not the result we'd hoped for in Queensland,' she told the ABC.

Mr Howard likened Labor's loss to the 1993 'unloseable' election when Liberal leader John Hewson was defeated, campaigning for a 15 per cent GST.

'There was a whiff of 1993 about the last couple of weeks,' he told the ABC.

'One side had been ahead in the polls but the other had gained ground during the campaign.'

On the NSW Central Coast, which had a high number of retirees, the Liberal Party recorded a 4.3 per cent swing to it, boosting sitting member Lucy Wicks' margin to 5.5 per cent.

The Liberal Party, however, has been punished in one of Sydney's wealthiest electorates.

On the northern beaches, Mr Abbott became the first major casualty of an surprising general election, losing his blue-ribbon seat of Warringah after 25 years in Parliament.

His independent challenger Ms Steggall has romped home, leading the former PM 58 to 42 per cent after preferences, securing a mammoth 19 per cent swing.

'I know I'm going to sound croaky but what a day,' she said, claiming victory.

Taking a dig at her socially-conservative opponent Mr Abbott, she this was 'a win for moderates with a heart.'

'I will be a climate leader for you,' she said. 'I will hold the new government to account and make sure they take action on climate change.'

She paid tribute to the former PM's 'work ethic and contribution to this community'.

Conceding defeat, Mr Abbott said: 'I'd rather be a loser than a quitter.'

He also declared Mr Morrison, who replaced Mr Turnbull as PM in August, would be a Liberal Party legend.

'Scott Morrison will rightly enter the Liberal pantheon forever,' he said.

Former Nationals deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce slammed GetUp! and left-wing activists for targeting Mr Abbott, as the Coalition recorded strong swings to it in Brisbane's outer suburbs and regional Queensland.

'You went after Tony you clowns ... and forgot about everyone else,' he told the ABC.

Across the other side of Sydney Harbour, independent MP Dr Kerryn Phelps was in a close race with her Liberal challenger Dave Sharma, seven months after she won a by-election in former PM Malcolm Turnbull's old eastern suburbs electorate.