PM Turnbull claims razor-thin victory in Australian elections

But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Sunday that his Liberal Party-led coalition had won the election.

Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday said his ruling government has won victory in the federal election.

The prime minister elect said he was carrying one-year old granddaughter Isla when when the Labor leader rang, eight days after Australia voted, re-electing a sitting government for the first time in 12 years.

Votes are still being counted.

Mr Shorten said he wants to hold Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to his conscience and support a bill to introduce marriage equality, without forcing the public to the polls.

Nonetheless, the Australian Electoral Commission on Sunday was able to call the victor of all 150 seats, showing the ruling conservative Liberal Party, which always runs in coalition with the rural-based Nationals, had secured the 76 seats of parliament needed to govern in their own right.

The Australian Electoral Commission won’t declare a definitive tally before July 15, the deadline for postal votes to be received.

If the LNP is unable to win at least two of the five seats then the party will be forced to negotiate with members of parliament from minor parties and independents in order to form a minority government.

The Prime Minister also said he had had “very constructive” discussions with crossbenchers in both houses of Parliament.

Three other seats – Capricornia, Flynn and Herbert in Queensland – will determine whether the Turnbull government gets the 76 required for a bare House of Representatives majority.

“It is vital that this Parliament works”, Mr Turnbull said yesterday.

He said his party was willing to work to find “common ground” with the Government and that Australians deserved “nothing less”.

Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove is in France for a Bastille Day celebration, meaning Mr Turnbull will have to wait for his return before parliament is sworn in.

“We have gone through this election with fiercely fought arguments, issues of policy, issues of principle and we have done so peacefully and it’s something we should celebrate”.

Mr Shorten pledged earlier yesterday in his concession speech that his centre-left party wanted to work well with the government, amid concerns the close result and higher number of lawmakers not from the two major parties could cause gridlock.

“We have won the election”, Turnbull said.

“Whoever said that if they did really say it they should put their name to things like that because it sounds very courageous and chest beating when you say it anonymously but I’d love a person who says things like that to actually put their name to it because without their name, it’s just cowardice obviously”, Mr Pyne told the ABC in response.

Hamstrung by conservatives in the coalition, Turnbull was also unable to pursue the more socially progressive agenda that many voters expected of him.