Turnbull’s coalition now has 71 seats, the opposition has 65 seats.
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The opposition Labor Party is also schmoozing with a quartet of new power brokers who are yet to declare support for either side, as rumbling grows about Turnbull’s future as leader of the centre-right Liberal Party-led coalition.
“Clearly Mr Turnbull has jeopardised the rating by delivering instability”, Mr Shorten told reporters.
One small party keen to exploit the situation was the controversial far right One Nation party, whose leader Pauline Hanson used the political limbo to push her far-right agenda that first won her worldwide notoriety in 1996, warning that Australia was being “swamped by Asians”.
With vote counting still underway, he said if Turnbull did end up forming a minority government with the support of independents, public criticism could weaken his bargaining powers.
“What an unbelievable amount of political damage Malcolm Turnbull has been able to inflict in a very short period of time as prime minister”, Economou said.
That process is likely to carry on for days, possibly weeks, leaving Australia in a political vacuum after Turnbull’s gamble in calling an early election backfired badly with a much bigger swing than expected against his conservative coalition. Shorten took the leadership of Labor following a poor performance in the 2013 election and has laid out several policies during the campaign, including promising a royal commission into the misconduct in the banking and financial services industry.
Since deposing Mr Tony Abbott last September, Mr Turnbull, a former investment banker, has gone from saviour of the ruling Coalition to a weakened leader who is fighting to form a government – and may soon be fighting to keep his job as Coalition leader. “He Brexited himself”, said Shorten, according to The Guardian.
Business leaders described the unresolved election as the worst possible outcome and urged the parties and independents to act quickly to form a government.
Some of Mr Turnbull’s own MPs have turned against him.
Oliver said Australia’s rating could be lost nearly immediately if Labor wins seats because of the party’s strategy for larger deficits over the next four years.
Echoing the speech Mr Turnbull gave when he lost the republic referendum in 1999, Ms Credlin said; “Malcolm Turnbull, you’re the man who broke the Liberal Party’s heart”.
“People should examine their conscience, think about their contribution to this disaster”, he told 5AA Radio.
The surge in voting for independents, combined with rules that make it easier for smaller parties to win Senate seats in a so-called double dissolution of parliament, will likely make it impossible for Turnbull to push through policies including a A$50 billion ($37.19 billion) corporate tax break over 10 years.
“Whatever criticisms there may be of the campaign they don’t lie at the Prime Minister’s door”, said the Attorney-General, Mr George Brandis.
The PM said “Labor cynically abused the trust of Australians by lying to them” about Medicare adding that it “was exposed in the media as a falsehood, was condemned in the media as a falsehood”.
Strong says COSBOA members are “trying not to be negative”, but says many are “terrified” of a Labor Government.
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Pauline Hanson holds an election placard as she stands with supporters during a function on election night in the city of Ipswich, west of Brisbane, Australia, July 2, 2016.
