Counting resumes to determine result of 2016 Federal Election

A HUMBLED PM faced the cameras yesterday to confirm there are millions more votes that could swing the election.

• PM takes full responsibility for Coalition campaign

• Bill Shorten defends Labor’s campaign
• Where the count stands
• Did polling booths run out of ballot papers?

IT WAS a humbled Prime Minister who faced the media yesterday, saying he’d heard the message of the Australian people and would look at how to address the concerns.

“I want to make it quite clear that as Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, I take full responsibility for our campaign,” he told media during a press conference on Tuesday.

Malcolm Turnbull said the outcome was still unclear and he expected up to three million votes to be added to the count over the next few days.

This includes up to 1.5 million postal votes that have until July 15 to be received, as well as more than one million “declaration votes” from silent voters not listed on the electoral roll, or who voted outside their electorates.

While Mr Turnbull said he remained confident the Coalition would form a majority government, he acknowledged there were lessons to be learned from the election.

“There is no doubt that there is a level of disillusionment with politics, with government, and with the major parties. Our own included,” he said.

“We note that. We respect it. Now, we need to listen very carefully to the concerns of the Australian people expressed through this election.

“We need to look at how we will address those concerns.”

He acknowledged the need to “do more to reaffirm the faith of the Australian people in our commitment to health and to Medicare”. He said he would like Australians to believe the Coalition commitment to Medicare was “completely bipartisan”.

“That commitment was there, but plainly there were concerns,” he said.

“We will work harder, much harder to again ensure that Australians understand our very deep commitment to them.

Malcolm Turnbull says he will work harder. Picture: David Moir

“Politics is ... not about the personalities of politics, not about Barnaby (Joyce) and me, not about the media, it’s about 24 million Australians,” Mr Turnbull said.

“It’s about their dreams, their aspirations, their families, their sense of security, their anxieties about the future, about government services, whether they can keep their job, whether they will get a better job and so forth.”

Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce said the point of his appearance with the PM yesterday was to show Australians that “quite clearly we’re back at work”.

“What we’re doing is thinking about the future. We’re thinking about the future and where this nation goes next and how we best serve this nation.”

He echoed the PM in saying: “We accept the result of the ballot box and we acknowledge that there is work to do”.

SHORTEN DEFENDS CAMPAIGN

Shortly after Mr Turnbull’s appearance yesterday, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten held a press conference in the Queensland electorate of Longman.

Mr Shorten claimed there was a very real chance Mr Turnbull was considering a snap election in the mistaken belief that this would sort out his problems.

“Mr Turnbull needs to genuinely concentrate on making the parliament work,” Mr Shorten said. “He shouldn’t be considering any options for an early election to deal with the dissent in his ranks or the unstable Senate that his reforms have given Australia.”

Mr Shorten also defended Labor’s “Mediscare” campaign saying the Coalition was freezing GP rebates, increasing the price of prescription medicines, taking away bulk billing incentives, and only providing half the extra funding to hospitals that Labor was.

“When you do these four massive multi-billion dollar cuts to our health care system, you are undermining Medicare as we know it.”

He said Saturday’s vote wasn’t just about people not wanting Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister.

“A lot of what happened on Saturday was people agreeing with Labor and the issue Labor was talking about including making sure that they don’t damage Medicare,” he said.

An elderly woman gives Bill Shorten the thumbs up during a visit to Morayfield, north of Brisbane on Tuesday. Picture: Dan Peled

Mr Shorten confirmed he had been ringing independents and crossbenchers.

“That’s the difference between Labor and the Liberals,” he said.

“We don’t treat people from other political parties like they’re beneath us,” adding that he was also prepared to work with the Liberals.

When asked whether Labor would be willing to work with the Coalition and other parties in the Senate, on who would receive a half term in the Senate, Mr Shorten said “let’s cross that bridge when we get to it”.

There’s been speculation that Labor and the Coalition could use their numbers in the Senate to ensure senators like Pauline Hanson only serve three years rather than six years.

Only half of the senators will serve the full six years, the others will face re-election in three years. According to the Australian Financial Review, if the two major parties work together they could use a countback provision that would give six-year terms to those who achieved a vote big enough to be elected during a normal election, not the reduced quota for a double dissolution election. This would benefit the major parties.

But Mr Shorten said he was concerned Mr Turnbull was a weak prime minister who was hostage to the right wing of this party.

“He has got instability within his ranks, he has instability in the Senate and what I’m saying to Malcolm Turnbull is — work with me and we’ll make this 45th parliament work,” he said.

“Let’s save Medicare, let’s reverse the cuts, let’s properly fund our schools, let’s take action on climate change and the rest of Labor’s platform.

“But Malcolm Turnbull, you created this mess, don’t look for the easy option of just bringing on an election and blaming everyone else.”

COUNT RESUMES

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) resumed the vote count on Tuesday.

It has updated its count to assign Cowper as a Coalition seat bringing its total to 69 seats for the Coalition, and 71 for Labor.

Its total is different to the ABC and election analyst Antony Green has described its online seat tally as being “not right”.

As of 7.54pm AEST on Tuesday, the ABC was showing eight seats in doubt. It predicts the Brisbane seat of Petrie and the South Australian seat of Grey will go to the Coalition, putting the Coalition on 70 seats, compared to 67 seats for Labor.

The parties need to secure 76 seats to form government.

The seats still in doubt are:

• Capricornia, Queensland — Labor ahead

• Chisholm, Victoria — Liberal ahead

• Cowan, Western Australia — Labor ahead

• Dunkley, Victoria — Liberal ahead

• Forde, Queensland — Labor ahead

• Gilmore, NSW — Liberal ahead

• Herbert, Queensland — Labor ahead

• Hindmarsh, South Australia — Labor ahead

AEC workers during the fresh scrutiny of House of Representatives votes. Picture: Troy Snook

A result could still be days or even weeks away, with many seats sitting on a knife-edge.

In the Western Australian electorate of Cowan, Labor candidate and counter-terrorism expert Anne Aly is leading Liberal incumbent Luke Simpkins by 959 votes with 77 per cent counted as counting resumed on Tuesday.

But up to 7500 postal votes in the Perth northern suburbs battleground are expected to favour Mr Simpkins and the AEC WA manager Marie Neilson has said a final result might not be known for two weeks.

Meanwhile, in the NSW seat of Gilmore there are even reports the count has been suspended.

So the count has been suspended in Gilmore because the AEC can't find a letter opening machine. I'm not even kidding.

— Joe McKenzie (@aJoeMcKenzie) July 5, 2016

More than 11 million votes were counted on election night itself but postal, absentee and pre-poll ballots papers were held over until this week.

The AEC has spent Sunday and Monday packaging up, distributing, sorting and verifying these votes before counting them — a task that could take “some time”, the organisation has said.

The Senate count also continued on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he is still confident the Coalition could reach this number but if it can’t, Australians would be facing a hung parliament.

As the incumbent, the Coalition will have the first opportunity to form government by securing the support of some of the independents or micro parties.

Earlier the Australian Electoral Commission was forced to calm speculation after it started doing a “fresh count” of votes, which led to seats such as Cowper showing new results.

Some eagle-eyed observers started tweeting that a recount was underway but the AEC responded tweeting: “Not a ‘recount’ Fresh TCP (two candidate preferred) count to be conducted for Cowper. Same as in Barker, Grey.”

It followed up with: “All seats also do ‘fresh scrutiny’, a check of all ballot counted. Electoral law requires. Not a recount either.”

The AEC has not responded to media inquiries from news.com.au

@barriecassidy @Auspol 1/2 Not a 'recount' Fresh TCP count to be conducted for Cowper. Same as in Barker, Grey. Instances every election

— AEC (@AusElectoralCom) July 5, 2016

VOTERS TURNED AWAY?

Meanwhile Glenn Lazarus has called for an investigation after he says he has received many complaints from voters in Queensland of not being able to vote.

The senator, who looks set to lose his seat after Saturday’s result, said he had received many

complaints from voters that polling booths simply ran out of ballot papers.

“I am absolutely shocked that polling booths would run out of ballot papers leaving voters unable to vote,” Mr Lazarus said today.

“According to many people they were told by AEC staff to check their name off the electoral roll so they could be excused from voting to avoid a fine because the polling booth had run out of ballot papers.

“This is totally unacceptable and must be investigated as a matter of priority.”

He said the issue was not just limited to Queensland.

“It will be interesting to see where this issue takes us. It could take us back to the polls. Perhaps

this will resolve the issue of a hung parliament,” he said.

Mr Lazarus said he had been advised by “many people” that the Turnbull Government slashed funding to the Australian Electoral Commission and reduced the number of polling booths across the country and the number of AEC workers at polling booths.

“This would explain why voters experienced unprecedented delays at polling booths and booths also ran out of ballot papers,” he said.

Queensland independent Senate candidate Glenn Lazarus hands out How-to-vote cards outside a polling booth at Jindalee State School in Brisbane on Saturday. Picture: Dan Peled

He said he had recommended the voting system be moved online to improve the experience for voters and to reduce the potential for voting fraud and system failures.

“This is not about me, this is about ensuring that the right thing happens,” he said.

“While I am not expecting this to change the election result for me, it is a very important issue and if I am able to ensure it is rectified as I prepare to leave office, it will benefit the country moving forward.”

He said given the extent of the complaints, he had referred the matter to a constitutional lawyer for advice.

“Regardless of how this election pans out, it is about time, the voting system was fixed.

“Many seats are sitting on a knife edge and a small number of votes could tip them either way.

“If voters were unable to vote because polling booths ran out of ballot papers, this means critical votes that could decide important outcomes like which party forms government, have been excluded from the process and this is a massive issue.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Ms Turnbull reiterated his position that he believed the Coalition would be able to govern in its own right. Emerging from his Point Piper home in Sydney on Tuesday morning, he told reporters, “The count is continuing and we remain confident that we will secure enough seats to have a majority in the parliament.”

Asked about Mr Shorten’s call that he should resign, the PM laughed and said: “Well he would say that wouldn’t he? I’m sure he would. I don’t think I’d be taking advice from the leader of the Opposition, do you?”