The outcome of the federal election is still unknown despite electoral officials spending the day sifting and counting postal votes.
The numbers were firming hourly on Tuesday evening, with different analysts projecting slightly different results, but the Coalition can now claim 68 seats in the House of Representatives, with the chance of picking up at least another four seats.
The Coalition needs 76 seats to claim an outright majority. By 8pm on Tuesday, no analyst was projecting that to happen yet.
It means a minority government is a strong possibility.
Late in the day, the ABC’s election computer said the Liberal National Party had retained the marginal seat of Petrie in Brisbane, with the LNP’s Luke Howarth pulling ahead of Labor’s candidate, Jacqui Pedersen.
Labor has now claimed 64 seats, and analysts say it can likely claim another two seats at this stage, with a further 11 still uncertain. The Greens have retained one seat, along with four independents.
As the counting continued, Malcolm Turnbull tried to arrest the bloodletting inside the Coalition with a full mea culpa on the election campaign and a message to conservatives that it was Tony Abbott who laid the groundwork for Labor’s successful offensive on Medicare.
Turnbull faced reporters in Sydney on Tuesday for the first time in 48 hours, taking full responsibility for any mistakes in the recent election campaign and acknowledging the Coalition had work to do to rebuild public trust on health.
He continued to insist that Labor’s Medicare campaign had been predicated on a “grotesque lie” but he reasoned the lie had fallen on “fertile ground”.
Labor leader Bill Shorten made hay, spending the day trying to highlight division in the Liberal party and questioning Turnbull’s ability to deliver stable government.
He warned on Tuesday that the prime minister may consider rushing to an early election.
“There’s a very real chance that Malcolm Turnbull is considering calling a snap election in the mistaken belief that this will sort out his own problems,” he said on Sunday.
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