Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared victory in the 2016 federal election, putting an end to a chaotic race that revealed growing divisions within the country. It’s about the Australian people.Everything we do, is about the future.
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The elections took place on 2 July.
“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.
Either way, Turnbull faces a rough road ahead with a divided party, a splintered Senate and a politically tired public that has endured five changes of prime minister in as many years.
Although he is expected to form a majority government, Turnbull’s gamble in calling the election backfired badly, with a swing to the center-left Labor opposition and a rise in the popularity of minor parties and independents.
“This is a great day”, Turnbull told reporters.
The story Malcolm Turnbull: “We have won the election” first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald. It could take weeks to determine the final tally.
But the Coalition is still confident it can still make up 76 seats to form a majority government.
He also called on Mr Turnbull to use Labor’s plans for Budget reform, but signalled he was open to supporting the Government’s superannuation changes.
“If we are entitled to a position, we’ll ask for that position”.
In several seats, just a few hundred votes were separating the coalition from Labor. Critics have questioned whether he can hang onto his job, or whether he will face a leadership challenge from colleagues unhappy with the party’s weak result.
Even so, Mr Turnbull faces an uphill task to get the Senate to pass two Bills related to restoring a construction union watchdog.
But Turnbull’s party coup replicated similar putsches inside the Labor Party when it was in office before 2013 and meant that Australia had its fifth prime minister since 2007.
‘We didn’t win enough seats and I recognise that but I want to reassure people who voted for us that we will stick to our guns’.
The turbulence has already caused other problems.
Fresh impetus to make budget repairs has come in the form of a warning by Standard and Poor’s to place Australia’s coveted AAA-rating on negative watch from stable.
Shorten promised that his party will cooperate with the LNP as much as possible in order to give Australians a functioning parliament but added that the Labor will continue to fight for its key election policies.
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According to ABC News Australia’s count, the Coalition has won 74 seats and Labor 66, with five still undecided.
With five seats remaining in doubt, senior Coalition members expressed optimism Sunday that they would win in the Flynn and Capricornia divisions of Queensland state.
“I hope for our nation’s sake the coalition does a good job”, Shorten told reporters in Melbourne.
GOVERNOR General Peter Cosgrove has given the Coalition the go-ahead to form government, although it is still uncertain it will be able to rule in its own right. After years of political discord, with six prime ministers in eight years, the main parties’ share of the primary vote dropped to the lowest level since 1943.
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As he enjoyed an early honeymoon in polls, he was seen as the conservative who could win over swinging left-leaning voters while at the same time implement the economic agenda needed to spur growth.
