ABC's chief election analyst Antony Green says early swings will make it "hard" for the Coalition to win.

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Anthony Albanese has been returned to office as Prime Minister, with Labor winning today’s federal election.

Counting so far is showing a consistent trend toward Labor, although pre-polls have yet to be counted.

That means the Coalition is no position to win, leaving Labor the only alternative government.

The government is on track to retain its majority, but that is yet to be confirmed.

In winning the election, Anthony Albanese becomes the first Prime Minister to win back-to-back elections since John Howard in 2004.

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On a pristine Australian island, the seabirds have become so full of plastic they crackle and crunch.

For about 18 years, Dr Jen Lavers has been travelling to Lord Howe Island to study the mutton birds, and every time finds more and more plastic inside them.

She says what is happening to the mutton birds is happening everywhere. Plastics and microplastics are being found in everything, including humans, but the migratory shearwater is a ‘sentinel species’ for a bigger problem.

“These birds have a very important story to tell, and what they are telling us is that their populations are in decline, that the amount of plastic they’re consuming is going up and up,” she said.

“The birds are telling us we need to do more.”

Dr Lavers has been seeking to raise the plight of the mutton bird, saying it is a canary in the coal mine for the world’s larger plastic problem.

And so, as Australian politicians campaigned in a federal election, she enlisted the help of long-time friend and Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, asking him to join her and see for himself the state of the mutton birds on Lord Howe Island.

Arriving to the island for the first time, Whish-Wilson said the mountainous landscape rising out of the fog was like something from Gilligan’s Island.

“It’s not really the kind of place you come to be shocked, and walk away feeling a little bit traumatised.”

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UPDATE: A bill expanding access to abortion has now passed both houses of the New South Wales parliament.

MPs were given a conscience vote on the bill brought by Greens MP Amanda Cohn, which will allow nurse-practitioners and endorsed midwives to prescribe abortion medication for early stage pregnancies.

The bill passed, 65 votes to 20 on Wednesday afternoon, with the support of the premier and opposition leader.

Coalition and Labor MPs were given a conscience vote on the matter.

Under Dr Cohn's original bill, doctors with moral objections to abortion would be legally required to refer a patient to another practitioner who would provide the service.

Some mandatory reporting requirements would also be abolished.

However, these proposals were among those stripped from the bill in the upper house last week, due to lack of support.

Dr Cohn said the Greens were "incredibly proud to have put abortion access on the political agenda".

"At a time when advocates for women's rights and reproductive rights have been anxious that our hard-fought rights could be eroded, it's significant for the NSW parliament, across party lines, to not only safeguard reproductive rights in NSW, but improve them," she said in a statement.

🖊️ Nick Dole via ABC News NSW

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