Labor's bold plan should not be the target. The issue is how it was going to pay for its commitments and grow the economy.

The electorate knows such measures must be passed by an often hostile Senate.

Abolishing franking credits to pensioners; abolishing negative gearing for new investors; reversing personal tax cuts; extending the budget repair levy and lowering the annual income threshold above which Australians pay more tax on superannuation contributions would all have been challenged in the Senate.

Some, such as negative gearing, also targeted aspirational voters.

Also, the electorate did want to know what the cost of Labor's climate change plans, whether they be for electric cars or a higher renewable energy target, would be.

While Labor was correct in saying the cost of not acting on climate change would be higher, that does not wash with the electorate.

It's also difficult to argue from opposition that you will deliver a bigger budget surplus than your opponents while, at the same time, offering extra tax cuts for low income earners, increase minimum wages and increase spending.

Labor should have learnt from the Hawke/Keating government which was fiscally responsible and from Bob Carr's Labor government in NSW. It produced surpluses year on year for nearly a decade.

Having taken note of Malcolm Mackerras' comments on Senate voting (Letters, May 15) I asked the supervisor at the Weetangera polling place if they had been following that correspondence.

He said he never read such letters and that the AEC's rules required me to vote in the Senate for six parties above the line or 12 candidates below. If I didn't, my vote would not be counted.

Based on this I believe the results from this polling place need to be challenged.

Mark Hartmann, Hawker

Last Saturday's poll was billed by many as the "climate change election". It has turned out to be the hip pocket election. Business as usual.

Many Australians care far more about their bank balances than climate change, having been convinced by Scott Morrison Labor was coming after their franking credits and superannuation.

Climate change could cost them far more than any Labor policy.

Many Queenslanders also apparently believe Adani's original promise of "10,000 jobs", or LNP Senator Matt Canavan's November statement the Carmichael coal mine "has the potential to create more than 7,000 new jobs".

Adani Mining's CEO, Jeyakumar Janakaraju, has said: "when we ramp up the mine, everything will be autonomous from mine to port". It will have less than half the production originally proposed. Automation will substantially reduce the number of jobs.

People haven't been voting early because of need, but because they didn't need five weeks of lies, pork-barrelling and in-principle-only policy platforms to sway their vote.

All the campaign offered was, from one side, scare-based lies readily reduced to nonsense on analysis.

And from both sides claims, projections and promises dependent on improbable financial outlooks in an already crashing economy and the unlikely support of a substantial Senate - or bicameral - cross bench.

Let there be continuous assessment: the right of everyone to cast two or three votes anytime randomly during the term of government, to be tallied up on its last day. That will take care of short term memory.

It would keep government wary of scandal month by month and dissolve the issue of corrupt, expensive and unfair campaign funding.

Ipsos, or any other opinion pollsters, should never be believed. They're only predictions and can never gauge the "soft mood" (swinging voter) of the electorate, especially leading up to election day.

Polling voters through landlines, or mobile phones is an outmoded method. Social media is where genuine positive and negative interactions occur. Ignoring it is perilous.

The appetite for economic reform doesn't sit well with voters, if issues impact on the 'hip pocket'. In this case, tax, jobs and national security, including strong and honest leadership, were paramount.

Social agenda reforms were never front of mind for voters.

Bill Shorten has been a liability for Labor ever since he took over the leadership.

Labor thought they could transform him into a credible and inspiring leader. This was never going to be the case.

Labor's only hope is a fresh young leader; not its current crop of leadership aspirants.

Re my letter (Letters, May 20). It seems l made an error in one of my claims. I stated that when a recipient turns 65 the National Disability Insurance Scheme assistance stops.

This, l have been told, is incorrect. l unreservedly withdraw it. I also offer my apologies to anyone who may have been caused some stress or worry as a result of my incorrect assertion.

The correct situation is that once a person turns 65 they are ineligible to apply for NDIS assistance.

I have wasted so many years of my life living in a country that had so much promise but ended up under the tutelage of beetle-browed, old, religious, white men.

They don't believe in climate change, even as islands go under.

They want to foist heterosexual hypocrisies on everyone even as all the husbands and wives are seeking extra-marital play dates on all the platforms and marrying at first sight on television.

I will be retiring overseas. I know the health care is excellent in some of those countries and the culture is most enjoyable.

I cannot comprehend the redneck attitudes here.

As for "Australia, love it or leave", I'm just disappointed this isn't backed up by an offer of financial assistance for those stuck here by lack of choice.

Please lefties, use your brains and form a coalition. Make an effort to serve those of us scared of the future and in dire need of hope.

Fifty-five years ago Donald Horne wrote "Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck".

The election result has confirmed that.

We have just elected to the country's top job an individual of, at best, plodding, Easter-show spruiking talent.

This was no "miracle" on Saturday.

It was a confirmation that our "lucky" country will now build on its growing reputation that we are culpably backward in our responsibility as custodians of our beautiful planet.

We will be the world's pariahs, pitied and utterly marginalised, because we can't see past the next few weeks, much less consider the next few decades, or centuries.

We voted for fear and loathing over hope.

Most Australians aren't wealthy enough to embrace climate change to either the Greens' or Labor's desired extent. Queenslanders are more keen simply to get a job, any job, than to say no to Adani.

Canberrans get the highest income of all Australians. Their vote reflects they have money to spare.

Don't be surprised when the rest of the country takes a more cautious approach approach to the Utopia promised by the ALP.

Watching the ABC you'd think the election is still to be run. Media panellists persist in saying climate change is the most important topic for most Australians. That's not the case according to the voters.

Good to see the majority of the voting population weren't taken in by Bill Shorten's election promises and the uncosted climate change policies. It was Labor's election to lose and lose they did. Well done ScoMo and the Liberal Party. Now would be the time for the Liberals to consider getting out of the Paris agreement. I was looking for some media comment from the former Prime Minister and his son Alex, but the silence is deafening.

Antony Albanese would be an excellent Labor leader; an admirable man.

How much tax payer's money did the parties spend sending leaders across the country? Please consider four year terms.

Since Zed has promised to save the public service perhaps he could save the ABC too. And if he doesn't, who will?

Australia has put its head back in the sand for another three years, at least. So sad.

Dear Queensland, next time you get wiped out by a drought, cyclone or bush fire inferno don't come begging us southerners for yet another bailout.

The election result was brought about by Shorten. Most voters did not want a Prime Minister with a perpetual smirk.

So Bowen, I guess your message to those who will decide Labor's leadership is: "if you don't like my policies don't vote for me"?

The election has put the final nail in the coffin of the Galilee Basin and the black-throated finch. May all the investors choke on their franking credits.

Would it not be a big feather In Scott Morrison's cap if he built on the Uluru statement, made peace with the past and unified the country?

Scott Morrison has become a Liberal legend taking on Bill Shorten and the Labor Party and single handedly wiping the floor with them. Well done ScoMo.

This may be the first time Scott Morrison has realised the truth of the slogan: "Queensland: beautiful one day, perfect the next".

Not only do we get more of the LNP shambles federally, but Andrew Barr's resignation, is now denied us.

Morrison ran a disgraceful fear campaign and won. He has something to atone for.

Now Scomo's won we can all get back to Netflix.

Please keep the whining letters from the sore Labor losers coming.

Bowen said of his taxation policies: "If you do not like these policies you can vote against them". We did.

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