After days of limbo, Australian premier claims election win

The incumbent Liberal/National coalition, which declared victory on Sunday after the Labour opposition conceded defeat eight days after national polls, secured 76 seats in the 150-seat lower House of Representatives, according to national broadcaster ABC.

Turnbull proclaimed victory on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported. Well it always takes this long, but we don’t notice because it usually becomes obvious on election night when around 70 per cent of the votes have been counted that one side or the other has won enough seats. “It’s something we should celebrate and not take for granted”.

Earlier, Shorten said although counting was still underway, it was clear that Turnbull would form the next either a minority or majority government.

“Earlier today [Labor leader] Bill Shorten called me and congratulated me on being re-elected as prime minister”, Mr Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.

“We need to make this parliament function and we’re up for that”, Shorten said.

Mr Shorten said Labor would work with the government to push through reforms where the parties shared common ground.

But the Coalition now has a narrow lead in two of those doubtful seats and looks increasingly likely win at least 76 seats giving the Turnbull Government an outright majority in the House of Representatives.

So Turnbull will be strung between several forces – his own soft-liberal tendencies, the conservatives in his party, the Nationals, the crossbenchers and even perhaps Labor from time to time – whenever he tries to move.

“Every member of the House and the Senate deserves respect because they have been elected by the Australian people”, he said.

What could count is the warm relationship New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has with Mr Turnbull, with some commentators saying there could be concessions because of Mr Key’s continued pressure.

“I believe that the government has won the election absolutely”. Those MPs don’t want gay marriage to be legalised even if the Australian community votes yes. “To me it was a very powerful reminder of something I’ve said before which is that politics is not about us the politicians”.

There are two possibilities: Either the coalition will form a majority government by a slim margin, or the country will have a hung Parliament.

Senior sources said the party room would fight hardest to overturn the impost of a $500,000 lifetime cap on non-concessional contributions backdated to 2007, on the basis it was retrospective.

Shorten also used the opportunity to flag his support for electronic voting systems in Australia to deliver faster election results in the future.

Turnbull said there would be a Coalition party meeting on Monday week.

But he immediately faced questions about whether he would be able to govern successfully, with Labor increasing its Lower House seats and a higher number of minor party and independent senators to contend with in the Upper House.

The Coalition now has 74 of the 76 seats needed to form a majority government, with Labor trailing behind at 66.