KEY POINTS:
Exit polls were late last night pointing to a win for Labor in the Australian election.
An exit poll carried out by Sky News and Network Seven - canvassing voters in the Coalition's 31 most marginal seats - predicted a Labor win with 53 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, compared to the Coalition's 47 per cent.
Projected across the country, and taking in the Labor marginal seats, it would translate nationally to 54 per cent of the vote for Labor.
The poll also predicted Prime Minister John Howard's seat of Bennelong would fall to Labor, with his opponent, celebrity candidate Maxine McKew, tipped to get 53 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.
Voters in the bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro in NSW indicated an even greater swing to Labor, with 58 per cent preferring it over the Coalition, on 42 per cent.
Meanwhile, a news.com.au poll indicated a different result, although similar to that published yesterday in the Weekend Australian newspaper.
In the poll, 45 per cent of participants said they had voted for the Liberals or the Nationals coalition, while 43 per cent had given Labor their vote. Just six per cent of participants voted for the Greens and one per cent for the Nationals.
The Newspoll found the Coalition and Labor essentially equal on primary votes. The poll, taken from Tuesday to Thursday, had the Coalition at 43 per cent with Labor at 44 per cent. On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor took 52 per cent of the vote in the poll, compared to the coalition on 48 per cent. However, exit polls have been little-used in Australia and overseas examples have sometimes been misleading.