Malcolm Turnbull has given the strongest indication yet the Coalition will challenge the result in the lower-house seat of Herbert, where Labor has claimed victory with a lead of just 35 votes.
Labor’s Cathy O’Toole claimed victory on Tuesday evening, although the incumbent Liberal MP, Ewen Jones, maintains he might win the seat when the full preference recount is completed on the weekend.
Turnbull told 2GB on Thursday Herbert was very close and the Coalition may still win.
“There may well be a challenge to it, because there are allegations that people were not able to vote in the election,” he said. “When you get down to a result as fine as that, a couple of dozen votes either way may [change the result].”
A win in Herbert would boost the Coalition’s lower-house numbers to 77, a stronger position than its current one-seat majority with 76 seats.
Broadcaster Alan Jones asked about 628 soldiers based in Townsville who were on exercises in South Australia on election day and did not cast votes, prompting Turnbull to say there was “real concern and real disappointment about it”.
He acknowledged allegations that voters, including at Townsville hospital, were denied the opportunity to vote in the late afternoon on election day.
Turnbull said he would not comment on the particular facts because of a possible court challenge but he said it was “critical that every Australian have the opportunity to vote”.
“We have a compulsory voting system – that’s a two way street, we tell Australians you’ve got to turn up ... if that’s the obligation we put on Australians, we and the Australian Electoral Commission owe it to them that they have the opportunity [to vote],” he said.
Turnbull said the Coalition would consider a challenge in the court of disputed returns if Jones lost the seat and he expected Labor to do the same if O’Toole lost.
He confirmed on Thursday cabinet would consider the terms of reference of the royal commission into the Northern Territory juvenile detention system and whether to nominate Kevin Rudd to be the next UN secretary general.
Turnbull said nominating Rudd amounted to indirectly supporting him, in contrast with a statement by the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, that nomination is not the same as endorsement.
The prime minister said that rates of Indigenous incarceration “is a top priority issue in closing the gap”.
He said because of poverty, welfare dependency, substance abuse, family breakdown “so many Indigenous kids are getting off to probably the worst possible start in life”.
However, Turnbull rejected calls to widen the terms of reference for the royal commission beyond the Northern Territory juvenile detention system.
Turnbull rejected Jones’ claim he had called a double dissolution to “clean out the Senate”, arguing it was to pass two industrial relations bills blocked by the old Senate.
He said the government was not in a worse position in the Senate, because there were 18 crossbench senators in the old Senate, including the Greens, and there would be a “similar number” after the election.
“Here’s the difference: the new crossbenchers will be there because a large number of people voted for them,” he said.
Senate voting reform had stopped preference deals which were “essentially undisclosed” and allowed candidates to be elected with less than 0.5% of votes.
Turnbull acknowledged an element of disillusionment with major parties and said Pauline Hanson had tapped into “real concern in the community” about foreign ownership of agricultural land.
“I’ve met with Pauline Hanson in the course of this week and we had a very good and constructive meeting,” Turnbull said. “Pauline Hanson and I disagree on a number of issues but the fact is that 579,000 Australians voted for her party.”
