“This is a great day today”, Turnbull told a press conference in Sydney. “I hope for our nation’s sake the Coalition does a good job; I hope they run a good government”, he said.
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Mr Shorten said he wants to hold Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to his conscience and support a bill to introduce marriage equality, without forcing the public to the polls. Although five seats are still considered close on the AEC website, two of those are likely to go to the Coalition, giving them the magic number of 76 seats required to form government.
“It is vital that this parliament works”, Mr Turnbull said, adding that Australia faced numerous challenges including a rocky transition away from a dependence on mining-driven growth. The Australian Greens will look to gain one seat while other minority parties will gain the remaining four.
One message, which appeared to come from “M Turnbull”, was sent to voters around the country the day before the election.
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.
Though most senior cabinet ministers are expected to hold on to their positions, fallen junior ministers Wyatt Roy and Peter Hendy – both key Turnbull backers who were instrumental in his toppling of former PM Tony Abbott – will have to be replaced.
Then there’s the issue of the fragmented Senate. That means even if Turnbull gets contentious legislation passed by the House, he would still have to try and strike deals with the opposition or a disparate group of Senate independents and minor parties to get it signed into law.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss James Pearson hopes the threat of a credit rating downgrade will see the new parliament working together to avoid another three years of political gridlock.
Turnbull said his granddaughter Isla was on his lap when he took Shorten’s concession call, and he was “deeply, deeply touched” by the moment.
The coalition is now expected to secure 74 seats, and potentially two more, according to national broadcaster ABC’s projections.
“I am anxious about the level of transparency in how they have accessed this information”, Mr Vaile said.
MALCOLM Turnbull has secured his first tenure as an elected prime minister, amid calls for the introduction of electronic voting to relegate prolonged vote counts to history.
Turnbull is expected to swear in his new cabinet next week with the Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, who is now in France for Bastille Day commemorations.
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He further said that he would write Turnbull to suggest adopting electronic voting system for the country in order to speed up “the results which should not hang in the balance for so long”.
