Aussie leaders seek minor party support amid election chaos

The move to fill three junior frontbench posts, all lost by Turnbull supporters, would isolate disgruntled conservatives Eric Abetz and Kevin Andrews, both of whom were dumped by the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has once again ramped up his attack on the Prime Minister, claiming Mr Turnbull is considering calling a snap election.

Voters fill in their ballots at a polling station at Town Hall in Sydney, Saturday, July 2, 2016.

Vote counting for the upper house Senate resumed on Monday but counting for the lower House of Representatives does not restart until Tuesday.

Turnbull, acting as caretaker prime minister while vote counting continues, appeared to have underestimated the protest vote that stole support from both major parties and must now negotiate with minor parties and independents to retain power.

“I’m interested in making the 45th Parliament work.

And you can imagine that we are among them”, Turnbull told reporters with a laugh. Broad opinion suggests a result will be come clearer by Tuesday night or Wednesday. But the truth is that we’ve had long waits before.

David Glance, director of the University of Western Australia’s Center for Software Practice, said the political standstill demonstrated a need for online electronic voting.

Partially offsetting that, Labor grew its lead by one vote, net, to 751 in Western Australia’s Cowan with 4850 left to count.

Turnbull ousted Abbott in a leadership vote among Liberal Party politicians in September 2015, promising to be more popular and stable than his predecessor. “We have to do more to re affirm the faith of the Australian people in our commitment to health and to Medicare”. “But a fact that significant numbers of people believed it or at least believed it enough to change their vote, tells us that we have work to do and we are committed to that”.

Electoral Commission projections give the coalition 67 seats in the 150-seat lower house, against Labor’s 71 and five to independents and the Greens.

The seats in doubt are Capricornia, Chisholm, Cowan, Dickson, Dunkley, Forde, Gilmore, Herbert, Hindmarsh, La Trobe and Petrie.

“Even if he does secure a majority, Turnbull has been damaged – probably irreparably – by this election”, he wrote in The Australian Financial Review. Labor MPs are due to gather in Canberra on Friday to make a decision on the position, despite the result of the election still being unknown. In the meantime, he is governing in caretaker mode until a victor is declared. Despite the political uncertainty, Turnbull is confident he will be able to form a majority government.

“I’m confident, but not cocky that we will be the government, and the government will be formed in the very near future, in the next days or weeks”, Joyce said.

The Nationals represent rural Australia and take a strong stance on foreign ownership and trade.

Moody’s Investor Service warned that policy paralysis when it comes to repairing the budget deficit could have an impact on Australia’s coveted triple A credit rating.

“It was at that point I realised that a lot of what we were campaigning on nationally just wasn’t resonating with everyday Australians… there was a disconnect”.

SYDNEY (AP) — With Australia’s government in chaos amid a dramatic national election that failed to deliver an immediate victor, the country’s opposition leader called on Monday for the prime minister to resign, dubbing him “the David Cameron of the southern hemisphere”. That could still take several days, electoral officials have said.