Australia’s prime minister and opposition leader are trying to drum up support from minor parties in a desperate bid to form a working government after a tight election failed to deliver an immediate victor.
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Australian opposite leader Bill Shorten is calling on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as the two are deadlocked after Saturday’s national election.
If you’re hanging out for some results you can check out the Australian Electoral Commission’s website which will be regularly updated as counting resumes on Tuesday.
Labor had won 67 seats to the coalition’s 65 before counting was paused on the weekend, with the Greens picking up one seat and independents claiming four.
With around 30 percent of ballots cast Saturday left to be counted, neither the coalition nor the opposition center-left Labor Party had gained the required 76 seats in the 150-seat House to form a government. At least 11 seats are undecided, and there may be recounts in some of the constituencies that have seen close contests. Key independents then took 17 days from the election date before declaring they would support a Labor minority government which became chaotic and unpopular. The results were in doubt for weeks until a ruling by the Supreme Court led to Bush being declared the victor.
Analysts are still predicting that Mr Turnbull’s coalition will come closest to forming a government, though a hung parliament, where neither party has an absolute majority, is likely.
When asked about the impact of the 2014 budget, Mr Morrison said: “There were some very serious issues there which I think they drew on in the campaign and they pointed to in the campaign”.
“The surest way to lose the next election is for us to commence the new parliament with an entrenched culture of infighting”, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“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.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Shorten did not speculate on a Labor victory, but celebrated the strong swing to his party just three years after it was convincingly dumped from power in the last election.
“He wanted a mandate for stability and he’s given us instability”, Shorten said.
“I am very confident, very confident indeed that we will form… a majority government in our own right, but I am, of course, talking to the crossbenchers as well”, Turnbull told reporters in Katter’s home state of Queensland, referring to the independent and minor party lawmakers who could hold the balance of power in a divided parliament.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had gambled on a double dissolution election in order to stabilise the Australian government after anti-union legislation was rejected twice in the upper house.
The government looks to have retained the South Australian seat of Grey, with incumbent Liberal Rowan Ramsey leading by more than 2000 votes.
A confident Labor leader said he would work to deliver the stability Turnbull promised repeatedly at the election, by reaching out collaboratively to the crossbenchers in the new parliament. Turnbull and Shorten on Sunday started negotiations with them.
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Prime Minister Turnbull takes “full responsibility” during a press conference in Sydney on Tuesday.
