Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Tonight is not the night that we wanted for the Liberal Party, for our Coalition or – indeed – for our country.

But we worked hard every day over the course of the last three years to do our best for our amazing country.

One of the great honour of being the leader of this party is that we have met people from every side, every corner, of the length and breadth of this country.

And there are many amazing stories. People who have sacrificed. People who are doing it hard at the moment. And, I have always wanted, in public life, the best for our country and the best for every Australian.

The highlight of my career has been as Defence Minister and, over the course of this campaign on Anzac Day, we caught up with young veterans in Townsville at the RSL and it reminded me of how lucky we are as a country. I want to acknowledge all of those men and women in uniform who keep us safe as a country.

Now, we didn’t do well enough during this campaign – that much is obvious tonight and I accept full responsibility for that.

Earlier on I called the Prime Minister to congratulate him on his success tonight. It is an historic occasion for the Labor Party and we recognise that.

I congratulated the Prime Minister and wished he and Jodie and 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 has achieved.

I also had the pleasure of speaking with Ali France and Ali and I have been combatants for a number of elections now but she was successful in the seat of Dickson tonight and she will do a good job as the local member. She lost her son Henry which is a tragic circumstance that no parent should ever go through and equally I said to Ali that her son Henry would be incredibly proud of her tonight and that she will do a good job as the local member for Dickson and I wish her all the very best.

It has been a great honour to be the leader of this amazing party for the last three years and I want to firstly acknowledge David Littleproud who has been a great partner in crime. He has led the National Party with great distinction. He has had the strength of character to stand up on issues that are important to us and we’ve worked incredibly well together. He has done a great job and he will do into the future.

I want to say thank you very much to Sussan Ley as my deputy and also Angus Taylor as Shadow Treasurer and other senior members who have contributed to the success of the last couple of years.

I also want to say a very very big thank you tonight, most importantly, to the millions of Australians who have supported the Liberal Party – the Coalition – it’s not our night, as I have pointed out, and there are good members and candidates who have lost their seats or their ambition and I’m sorry for that.

We have an amazing party and we will rebuild.

Can I say thank you very much to John Olsen as the president of the party who has done a fantastic job. To Andrew Hurst and all of the secretariat for the work that they’ve done.

I want to say thank you to my staff who are just amazing … that leaves me with the hardest part and that is my amazing family. I am blessed to have an amazing family in Kirilly, in Bec, and Harry, and Tom. They have stood by me through thick and thin and I’m so grateful for their support and their love.

Can I say thank you to the people of Dickson and to our amazing supporters in Dickson.

Dickson had a one-term curse.

It was only ever held for one term at a time and we’ve held it for 24 years, which is an amazing achievement.

24 years is a long time to be in public life and it has been an amazing honour but I do want to say thank you to the people of Dickson who have placed faith in me over a long period of time and we’ve had lots of battles and lots of campaigns. Ultimately, we’ve been able to deliver an amazing outcome for our local community – to residents and to people that we’ve been able to help. People who were with loved ones who were sick and stranded – infrastructure projects. There are many ways in which we have been able to provide amazing support and I want to say thank you very much to them.

Our Liberal family is hurting across the country tonight, but including in my electorate of Dickson … ultimately we live in the best country in the world and I’ve always believed that. I always will.

I love this country and I’ve fought hard for it.

We’ve been defined by our opponents in this election which is not the true story of who we are.

But, we will rebuild from here.

We’ll do that because we know our values, we know our beliefs, and we’ll always stick to them.

I want to say thank you the Australian people for the faith they’ve placed in me and for the great honour of having been the member for Dickson and the Leader of the Opposition.