Tight contests continue in six seats as vote counting continues following the weekend federal election.
As of Thursday morning, the Australian Electoral Commission has Labor with 75 seats to the coalition’s 60, the Greens with three seats, and 12 on the cross bench.
The commission is conducting new postal vote counts for the lower house and Senate as well as the rolling process of “mandatory secondary counts” involving fresh scrutiny of ballots cast.
This will lead to vote tallies bouncing around on Thursday.
In the tightest race, Liberal candidate Andrew Constance is 114 votes ahead of sitting Labor MP Fiona Phillips in the NSW south coast electorate of Gilmore.
Labor MP Brian Mitchell’s margin has dropped to 535 votes ahead of Liberal candidate Susie Bower for the Tasmanian seat of Lyons.
And in the Brisbane seat of Ryan, Greens candidate Elizabeth Watson-Brown is ahead of LNP MP Julian Simmonds by 119 votes.
Outgoing minister Michael Sukkar is in a more comfortable position, 890 votes ahead of Labor rival Matt Gregg for the Victorian seat of Deakin.
In Brisbane, Labor’s Madonna Jarrett is holding on to her primary vote lead over the Greens, which will put her in a strong position to take the seat from Liberal MP Trevor Evans.
She is 528 votes ahead of the Greens’ Stephen Bates.
In the Senate, the coalition is on track to hold 31 seats, with 26 for Labor in the 76-seat chamber.
The Greens are expected to hold 12 Senate spots, with One Nation likely to hold two seats.
Meanwhile, a task force established to ensure the security of high-office holders and parliamentarians during the election received a total of 73 complaints during the campaign.
Operation Wilmot accepted 37 complaints for criminal investigation, with 24 the subject of ongoing inquiries, a federal police spokeswoman told AAP.
Thirteen investigations were finalised with no criminal charges, while one charge – involving a man who allegedly threatened a member of Barnaby Joyce’s security detail – was brought to court.
