In Australia, opposition Labor Party conceded defeat in the federal election today, clearing the way for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to retain power.
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“I respect that Mr Turnbull has won government – be it a minority government or a majority of one or two seats”, Shorten said on Sunday.
“I have spoken to Mr Turnbull early this afternoon to congratulate him and Lucy, and to wish them the very best”, Mr Shorten said. “We have secured the largest number of seats in parliament”.
The Coalition is on track to win at least 74 seats, and is confident it can win two more, giving it enough seats to govern in its own right.
Turnbull’s Liberal-Nationals are expected to win 76 seats, the minimum for a majority, while the opposition Labor party is predicted to win 69, the ABC said.
After Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said on Sunday that the new Coalition agreement that has to be signed between the Nationals and The Liberals should be kept secret, Labor disagreed.
Turnbull thanked Australian people for voting him in.
He said he hopes for Australia’s sake the government does a good job and has pledged to work with the Coalition where common ground exists.
It’s finally over. A week after Australians cast their votes, the country’s longest election campaign in 50 years has come to end.
But while there will be no change for now, Turnbull is in a weakened position after the poll, having lost his comfortable majority in the House of Representatives and the internal blame games are already taking place.
“It is vital that this parliament works”, he said.
“Successful governments work with the Senate”, Australia Institute director Ben Oquist said.
“I believe that the government has won the election absolutely”.
“We’re a grown-up democracy”, Shorten said.
While all bar five of the 150 seats in parliament will go to the coalition and Labor, smaller parties and independents won the backing of more than a fifth of voters, prompting calls for changes to the electoral system among smaller groups.
The bill’s non-passage provided Mr Turnbull with the trigger to call an early “double-dissolution” election where all 76 Senate seats were up for grabs, rather than the usual half.
In Flynn, which stretches inland from the city of Gladstone, the LNP’s Ken O’Dowd trailed his Labor opponent for most of last week but is now ahead by 391 votes with 5,783 left to count.
There is pressure on the Liberal leader to give the Nationals an extra frontbench role, after the party gained an extra seat in the election, and conservative Liberals are seeking a stronger position in the ministry line-up.
Mr Turnbull said he would visit the Governor General next week to be officially sworn in again as prime minister.
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He had ousted then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a party coup past year.
