Turnbull said he was confident of forming a majority government once the remaining votes in tight seats are counted, and his visit to Katter in Queensland was purely to ‘cover his bases’.
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But Mr Turnbull, more circumspect than his comments on election night of a guaranteed majority, said there were “lessons to be learned for all concerned”.
The uncertainty surrounding the election prompted rating agency Standard & Poor’s to downgrade Australia’s coveted AAA credit rating from “stable” to “negative”.
Australian independent Cathy McGowan has put her support behind a Coalition government, saying she would offer supply and confidence in the event of a hung parliament.
Treasurer Scott Morrison pledged after the S&P statement that if his government was returned to power, they would work hard to “ensure that we can maintain the financial strength of the government and of the country as a result”.
“There is no doubt that Labor cynically abused the trust of Australians by lying to them about this”, Turnbull said, referring to Labor’s suggestion that the government planned to privatise Medicare.
“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.
Party insiders say Liberal candidates are expecting to pick up either four or five of the remaining seats, which would push Turnbull past the 76-seat majority required to form government.
“It’s likely in coming days that the Liberals will scrape over the line”, Opposition leader Bill Shorten of the Labour Party had conceded during a party meeting. Five others were still too close to call, it said.
Whether it is able to form government is its own right is still hanging on a knife-edge result but is looking more likely.
The Coalition appears to have won the seat of Chisholm in Melbourne – previously held by the Labor Speaker of the House of Representatives Anna Burke who retired at this election – holding a lead of 1395 votes over the Liberals late on Wednesday. But Labor’s only hope was to form a minority government.
“It is not helpful for anyone on the coalition side to be engaging in the kind of public criticism which might potentially weaken Mr Turnbull’s bargaining position”, Brandis told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
“Friends, after the longest campaign in 50 years, this could well be one of the shortest Parliaments in 50 years”, he said.
Turnbull’s gamble in calling an election, ostensibly to clear the Senate of what he saw as obstructive minor parties, backfired badly with a much bigger swing to the centre-left Labor opposition than expected. “You’d have to say we are an election winning machine”.
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In the Perth seat of Cowan, the Liberal MP Luke Simpkins is also trailing by 757 votes and is under threat from Labor’s Anne Aly.
