Vote counting resumed on Monday in a dramatic Australian federal election but a victor is not expected to be announced for several days, raising the prospect of prolonged political and economic instability.
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Australia’s prime minister and opposition leader are trying to drum up support from minor parties in a desperate bid to form a working government after a tight election failed to deliver an immediate victor.
“In terms of stability in politics I think there is a very strong desire from the public to have that, and they don’t want three prime ministers in three years, or six prime ministers in six years”, he said. While the Australian Electoral Commission can not say when a result will be known, Turnbull is confident of a resolution by the end of this week.
The Labor Party had won 67 seats to the coalition’s 65 before counting was paused on the weekend, with the Greens picking up one seat and independents claiming four.
With Labor and the Liberals in a virtual tie, there is a possibility neither would end up with enough seats to form a majority government, resulting in a hung parliament.
With the two major parties, the conservative Liberal-National coalition and centre-left Labor, sitting on the sidelines waiting for a result that could take days, it was left to another independent, centrist Nick Xenophon, to mount a defence of multicultural Australia.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he’s still confident the coalition will secure majority government.
“There’s no-one better in a small room than Bill Shorten”, Mr Albanese said.
On election night prominent conservative radio host Alan Jones called Turnbull supporter James McGrath a “bedwetter”, while Coalition senator Cory Bernardi told Adelaide radio Turnbull needed to be “held to account”.
Eighty percent of the votes have been counted, but it could be days (or even weeks) before Australia is given an outcome.
Australians are tired of political upheaval after the nation churned through six prime ministers in eight years.
ANZ head of Australian economics Felicity Emmett expects confidence could fall further if the Turnbull government fails to secure a majority and a minority government proves hard to form. Some senior Liberal Party figures, including former prime minister John Howard, yesterday publicly called on the party to rally behind Mr Turnbull. Mr Turnbull said the government would have to do more to reaffirm the people’s faith in the coalition’s commitment to health and to Medicare.
“An election always produces the parliament the people choose”, Brandis said.
Labor leader Bill Shorten can be sure of his position after bringing his party back to within striking distance of the Treasury benches.
Independents Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan were all returned to the lower house, as was Greens MP Adam Bandt.
He became leader of the Liberal party in an inhouse coup last September that overthrew Tony Abbott, prime minister since 2013.
The Australian dollar and shares dipped in early trade on Monday after no clear victor emerged, pointing to policy paralysis ahead and perhaps threatening the country’s triple A credit rating.
S&P Global Ratings said: “Irrespective of the political composition of any new government, we could lower the rating if parliamentary gridlock on the budget continues and Australia’s budgetary performance does not improve broadly as we expected a year ago”.
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Turnbull’s disastrous polling has led to attacks from inside and outside his party after he gambled and called elections in both houses of parliament in an attempt to settle a querulous upper house Senate.
