But he provided little evidence for his claim, and finished his press conference by appealing to Mr Turnbull to work with Labor and the crossbench, should he form government, to make the 45th Parliament operate in the national interest.
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Mobbed by reporters outside his Sydney home on Monday morning, Turnbull ignored a question about whether he was still confident of his leadership, only telling journalists “the counting continues”.
“Looking ahead, trends in Australia’s credit profile will be determined by whether fiscal objectives are effectively implemented, whether external financing conditions remain favourable and how housing market developments affect domestic growth and financial conditions”, Marie Diron, Senior Vice President at Moody’s, said in a statement.
If Mr. Turnbull fails to build a new coalition, Australia may have to appoint its fifth prime minister since 2010.
Turnbull is being blamed for a series of missteps, beginning with triggering the double dissolution of parliament in May, and a long eight-week campaign that allowed time for Labor to hit key issues like healthcare and company tax cuts. Such an outcome is derisively called “a hung parliament” in Australia.
Five seats were listed as close, and another six as “not yet determined”. Three years later, the coalition swept to power after winning 90 seats.
But ANZ head of Australian economics Felicity Emmett says mounting uncertainties – through the election and Brexit – may pose some downside risks to the employment outlook later in the year.
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”.
“They’ve brought down [Prime Minister Malcolm] Turnbull – he’s as good as a dead man walking – and destroyed the [Liberal Party and National Party governing] Coalition”, the Monash University political expert underlined. Behind that lack of commitment is the tendency of both the public and their politicians to focus more sharply on short-term rather long-term results.
“The speed of politics has definitely increased”, Smith said.
“I think in the end he should be asking himself if he has done the Liberal Party a service or a disservice”, Corey Bernardi, a senator from Turnbull’s Liberal Party, said.
Opinion polls had predicted a close race, but had largely tipped the government to win by a narrow margin.
Meanwhile, it is still not clear which party will form government after Saturday’s vote.
Controversial One Nation Party leader Pauline Hanson is on track to pick up a Senate seat in Queensland, having claimed at least 10% of the senate votes for the state on Saturday night.
Green says the South Australian seat of Grey, which the AEC has given to the Nick Xenophon Team, could remain a Liberal seat. The party will now likely have three senators and a lawmaker in the House of Representatives. Hanson’s party has had no representative in Parliament since she was voted out in 1998. At best, it can win 77 seats, but is likely to secure fewer than 76, depriving the coalition of a majority.
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Post-election polling undertaken by ReachTEL for the progressively aligned Australia Institute found the slimmest of majorities (47 per cent to 46.3) want negotiations with the crossbenchers to culminate in a minority government if that is what is needed – despite much demonising of the very notion of minority government by the Coalition in the lead-up to the election.
