Australian leaders in talks over election results

The prime minister badly underestimated Labour leader Bill Shorten, Australian broadcaster ABC News says.

The ruling Liberal/National Coalition party is confident, “but not cocky” of reforming government in the coming days or weeks after a national election on Saturday left the result under a cloud. Absolutely full responsibility for the campaign.

The government and the opposition Labour Party are now each short of the 76 seats needed to govern, and with the vote count ongoing, there is the prospect of a hung parliament.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he’s still confident the coalition will get the numbers to secure majority government. Instead, it left Turnbull’s own leadership in question less than a year after he ousted then prime minister Tony Abbott in a party-room coup.

But that was when he was a member of the National Party, he said, adding that now, candidates must be much more responsive to the needs of their constituents.

“Even if he does secure a majority, Turnbull has been damaged – probably irreparably – by this election”, he wrote in The Australian Financial Review.

Liberal Senator and Turnbull confidant Arthur Sinodinis said the Prime Minister would be entering dialogue with a number of crossbench MPs in an attempt to form a government.

The AEC has spent the past two days packaging up, distributing, sorting and verifying these votes before counting them – a task that could take “some time”, the organisation has said.

Echoing the speech Mr Turnbull gave when he lost the republic referendum in 1999, Ms Credlin said; “Malcolm Turnbull, you’re the man who broke the Liberal Party’s heart”.

Vote counting for the Senate resumed on Monday but counting for the House of Representatives does not restart until Tuesday, leaving the precarious position of the lower house in limbo.

With the result of 13 seats still in doubt, political pundits were predicting one of two main scenarios: the coalition scrapes across the line by picking up nine or more of the undecided seats, or it fails to reach 76 and has a hung parliament where neither side holds power.

Mr Shorten repeated his argument that Mr Turnbull has no mandate for his election platform and leads a divided party that had already broken out in “internal civil war”.

“I think Bill Shorten is a very strong negotiator, that’s one of his great strengths”.

The Australia dollar fell half a US cent after S&P’s announcement, which cited concerns the coalition government would be hampered in its plans to return to budget surplus as it struggles to form a majority government.

“Mr Turnbull clearly doesn’t know what he is doing”, said Mr Shorten yesterday.

Senator Sinodinos said it was natural for people to come out after an election and say “all sorts of things” and when the party next met, everyone would have a chance to have their say. “For me, stability isn’t something you promise on a Saturday and forget on a Monday”, he said, appearing in the electorate of Lindsay, now held by Emma Husar in one of Labor’s many surprise victories in marginal New South Wales seats. Another 11 seats were in doubt.

“What we have to recognise is that many Australians were troubled by it. They believed it or at least had anxieties raised with it. It is very clear that Barnaby and I and our colleagues have to work harder to rebuild or strengthen the trust of the Australian people in our side of politics when it comes to health”.