Federal Election 2025: What happened in the Senate?

Before we explain what we know about what happened in the Senate, let’s quickly explain how it works.

There are 76 senators who make up the Senate (or the upper house). Each state has 12 senators, while the territories have two senators each. State senators serve six year terms, while territory senators serve three year terms. That means that at this election, only half of the Senate was up for re-election.

Senators are chosen based on proportional representation. It's a system of quotas - essentially you need to reach a certain percentage of votes (about 14.3%) in order to guarantee a spot in the Senate.

What we know

It’s still early in the Senate counting, but here’s what we know so far:

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• Labor could increase its representation in the Senate. It went into the election holding 24 Senate seats. ABC’s Antony Green predicts Labor could gain an additional four seats in the upper house, which will “aid the passage of legislation” for the government.
• While the Greens are struggling to retain their seats in the House of Representatives, they look set to hold on to their seats in the Senate.
• There’s been a swing towards Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party in the Senate.
• Independent ACT Senator David Pocock has doubled his vote from the 2022 election (reminder: as a territory senator, he is up for re-election every three years).