While election counting continued, Mr Turnbull said the coalition was seeing “positive trends”.
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On a national two-party count, just 485 votes separate the Liberal-National coalition and Labor with a 3.5 percent swing to Labor.
“It’s likely in coming days that the Liberals will scrape over the line but the combination of a PM with no authority, a government with no direction and a Liberal Party at war with itself, will see Australians back at the polls within the year”, Labor Party leader Bill Shorten told a party gathering in Canberra.
But Mr Katter said he would brook no “union bashing” from a potential Coalition government and he would not modify his position against the ABCC proposal.
Turnbull would also have to deal with a more fragmented Senate, which includes One Nation party founder Pauline Hanson, a conservative firebrand who opposes Muslim and Asian immigration as well as free trade and is denounced by major parties.
With that support, Turnbull’s coalition was expected to snaffle the 76 seats they needed to declare an outright victory.
“But we will be campaign-ready from this day onwards”, he said.
‘When people are hurting, someone is going to get belted, ‘ said Liberal MP Ewen Jones who’s trailing by 620 votes but making up ground as postal votes are counted in his Queensland electorate of Herbert. If neither side can form a government, then another election will be held.
Mr Turnbull said he would visit the Governor General next week to be officially sworn in again as prime minister.
The prime minister will probably appoint younger members of the Liberal Party’s conservative bloc, such as Michael Sukkar and Zed Seselja, to ministerial vacancies created by election losses, the newspaper said. Seven seats are too close to call.
The party needs 76 seats to form majority government.
The other five seats which make up the 150-seat House of Representatives are those held by Ms McGowan, Tasmanian Independent Andrew Wilkie, Queenslander Bob Katter, South Australian Nick Xenophon Team victor Rebekha Sharkie and the Victorian Greens’ Adam Bandt.
Turnbull is being blamed for a series of missteps, beginning with triggering the double dissolution of parliament in May, sending both upper and lower houses to the ballot box, and a long eight-week campaign that allowed time for the opposition Labor to hit key issues like healthcare and company tax cuts. Another three seats were in doubt.
One of his senior ministers, Christopher Pyne, did claim victory, but in Australia it is not over until state broadcaster ABC’s election guru Antony Green says it is.
Shorten also outlined how Labor would approach the next parliament.
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“The important thing now is that we have the best possible government with the strongest possible programme and, obviously, that is a Malcolm Turnbull Coalition government”, he said this week.
