Federal election 2016 live: Count continues as Turnbull courts independents
The independent MP says he will back a Coalition government, but the latest figures suggest his support won’t be needed.
And that concludes The Australian’s live election coverage as the count continues for yet another day. Join us tomorrow morning as we edge closer to a result.
9.30pm:Key seat latest
• Capricornia (Nationals QLD): Sitting LNP MP Michelle Landry is trailing Labor’s Leisa Neaton by 476 votes in this Rockhampton-based seat. But Landry is picking up 56 per cent of postal votes.
• Cowan (Liberal WA): Labor candidate Anne Aly leads by 784 votes. But sitting Liberal MP Luke Simpkins is picking up 54 per cent of postal votes.
• Forde (LNP QLD): Sitting MP Bert van Manen now leads Labor’s Des Hardman by 687 votes in this Logan electorate south of Brisbane. Van Manen is picking up 56 per cent of postal votes and appears set for victory.
• Herbert (LNP QLD): Sitting MP Ewen Jones is trailing Labor’s Cathy O’Toole by 449 votes, but the race is far from over in the Townsville-based seat. Postals are flowing to Libs 58-42 which could get them home.
• Hindmarsh (Liberal SA): Former Labor MP Steve Georganas leads by just 68 votes over sitting Liberal MP Matt Williams. However Williams is winning 54 per cent of postal votes.
• Flynn (Nationals QLD): Given to Labor on the night but the postals are flowing to sitting MP Ken O’Dowd at 63 per cent. That could get him home in a very tight contest. Labor’s Zac Beers leads by 646 votes.
9pm: Bolt death threats
Straying off the election path, Andrew Bolt has revealed he has been forced to move his children to another home after receiving “a string of death threats” from an alleged supporter of Islamic State.
In an interview on his Sky News program with One Nation spokeswoman Pauline Hanson, the conservative commentator revealed the lives of his family had been threatened, forcing him to move his children to keep them safe. Revelations of a threat come less than 24 hours after Mr Bolt wrote about Australia’s Grand Mufti, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammad in his Daily Telegraph column.
7pm:Liberals declare victory in Chisholm
The Liberal Party has declared victory in the Victorian seat of Chisholm.
Candidate Julie Banks issued a statement on Thursday night saying she was humbled by the result achieved in Chisholm and thanked the community for electing her.
The seat was given to the Liberals on the night of the election but late counting favoured Labor’s Stefanie Perri.
5pm:The seat state of play
Now for an update on the count in the seven closest seats.
Counting has continued to favour the Coalition in all seven, with Labor clinging to narrow leads in five of those.
• Labor’s lead is narrowest in the seat of Hindmarsh (SA), where this morning’s lead of 151 has been slashed to 21.
• In Forde (Qld) a Liberal lead of 254 has grown to 440.
• In Herbert (Qld) Labor is ahead by 620, with the Australian Electoral Commission yet to update the results of today’s count.
• In Cowan (WA) Labor’s lead of 722 votes remains as it was this morning, in spite of some fluctuations over the course of the day.
• In Capricornia (Qld) Labor’s lead of 732 has fallen to 472.
• In Gilmore (NSW) the Liberal lead of 991 this morning has increased to 1316.
• In Flynn (Qld) Labor’s lead of 1065 has been cut almost in half to 662.
4.20pm:‘Labor is very grateful’
Bill Shorten has given a press conference in Perth, where he has travelled to congratulate Labor’s new MPs-elect, celebrating the party’s best performance in more than a decade and a half.
Speaking in the newly-created seat of Burt, in Perth’s southeast, Mr Shorten congratulated the new Member for Burt Matt Keogh, and talked up Labor candidate Anne Aly’s chances in Cowan, where she is 722 votes ahead of sitting Liberal Luke Simpkins.
Labor has retained the seats of Brand, Fremantle and Perth, and Mr Shorten said the party was optimistic about winning four WA seats in the Senate.
“The trend of the last elections have been reversed,” Mr Shorten said. “Labor is winning seats in Western Australia and we are very grateful that the people of Western Australia decided to take a second look at the Labor Party and voted very strongly for our positive policies.”
He said regardless of the national outcome, Labor would fight for WA in parliament and work constructively with the independents and crossbenchers.
Mr Shorten made light of the Prime Minister’s meeting with Bob Katter this afternoon.
“If Malcolm Turnbull’s promise for stability in Australia is that he’s banking Bob Katter, it’s not really the most stable proposition I’ve heard,” Mr Shorten said.
“Bob Katter by nature tends to vote much more with the Coalition so there’s no surprises there, but I hope Malcolm Turnbull’s got more in the stability draw than just saying he’s got Bob Katter on his side.
Mr Shorten said it was a little hard to blame Labor for today’s S&P warning on our AAA rating, given the party had been in opposition for the past three years.
“The decisions of fiscal ineptitude and the tripling of the deficit, the inability to transition beyond mining, I blame that solely on the current Coalition,” Mr Shorten said.
4pm:Howard attacks ‘absurd’ Wilkie
Former Prime Minister John Howard has stood by his decision to send Australian troops to Iraq in 2003 following the release of the findings of the Chilcot inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the war.
He has also hit out at Tasmanian Independent Andrew Wilkie’s claims this morning Australia’s involvement in Iraq caused the 2005 Bali bombings, the rise of ISIS and the Lindt Cafe siege.
“I think it’s an absurd proposition,” Mr Howard said. “What about the Bali attack of 2002, where the fatalities were greater? I mean, this is irrational.”
Mr Howard said one of the most interesting conclusions of the inquiry from his perspective was that it had concluded there was no evidence that the British Joint Intelligence Committee had been improperly influenced in its gathering and provision of intelligence.
He said he regarded the intelligence the Australian government was provided by the Departments of Defence and Foreign Affairs and by intelligence agencies was “highly professional”.
Mr Howard said he regretted the loss of life in any military conflict, and committing Australian servicemen and women to conflict was the hardest decision he took as Prime Minister.
“It always bothered me but I believed that the decision to go into Iraq was justified at the time and I don’t resile from that because I thought it was the right decision,” Mr Howard said.
Asked whether he agreed that the Middle East had been left in worse shape and the terrorist threat heightened as a result of the Iraq conflict, Mr Howard said he and his colleagues had did not have the benefit of hindsight when they made their decisions.
“But having said that, I don’t share the view that the terrible conflict in the Middle East is the direct consequence of the operation in March of 2003,” Mr Howard said.
“ISIS, to a large extent, came out of the confluence of forces coming out of Syria, joining with forces in Iraq and I might remind you that after the successful surge overseen by General David Petraeus which the Bush Administration undertook, Iraq had entered a period of relative stability and had also entered a period where nationwide elections were carried out despite the intimidatory threats of many, and there is a view which I think has a lot of merit that if the process or the aftermath of the surge had been reinforced by a greater continuing Western, particularly American presence, the situation would have been a lot more stable,” Mr Howard said.
Asked what he made of the view that Tony Blair had already made the decision to go to war in 2002, Mr Howard said he couldn’t put himself in Mr Blair’s mind, but had no reason to disbelieve him.
“I always found him a thoroughly honourable and honest person to deal with,” Mr Howard said.
He said the two inquiries Australia has already had into our involvement in Iraq were “more than adequate” and there was no need for another.
3.20pm:‘Still exciting times’
Malcolm Turnbull has thanked Bob Katter for his support, making a brief statement in Brisbane following what he says was a “very good and constructive” meeting with the Queensland Independent MP.
“His values and objectives are in many respects very similar to those of the LNP, the Liberal Party, the National Party, and we have a very common commitment to strong development, particularly in northern Australia and particularly with respect to water infrastructure,” Mr Turnbull said.
He said the Coalition’s numbers would not be clear until counting of votes had concluded, positive trends in a number of seats gave him confidence.
Mr Turnbull also mentioned Standard & Poor’s “negative watch” warning on Australia’s AAA credit rating, saying it was a reminder of the importance of the government’s commitment to budget repair, reducing the deficit and managing public finances responsibly during the transition from the mining and construction boom.
“These very exciting times which remain exciting,” Mr Turnbull said. “Perhaps exciting in different ways, but they are exciting. They are at times of opportunity, of great challenge, and S&P has reminded us that budget repair and responsibility for the public finances are critical.”
Mr Turnbull departed without taking questions.
3pm:Union welcomes Katter backing
Militant construction union the CFMEU has jumped at Bob Katter’s warning that he won’t stand for any union bashing, declaring him a “legend”.
“His vote will be very important in stopping Malcolm Turnbull’s attempts to attack workers,” the CFMEU says on its Facebook page.
2.45pm:Shorten poised for endorsement
Bill Shorten is set to be unanimously endorsed as Labor leader at a caucus meeting in Canberra tomorrow as the party celebrates its election result, despite failing to form government. The leadership position will be declared vacant but the Opposition Leader is expected to be the only nominee – ensuring Mr Shorten will stay in the top job for the next term of parliament. If Labor loses an election the leadership position is automatically spilt under rules introduced by former PM Kevin Rudd in 2013. There would only be a ballot if someone other than Mr Shorten put up their hand.
2.30pm:‘There’s no quid pro quo’
Asked what Malcolm Turnbull had promised him in return for his support, Mr Katter said it would have been “improper behaviour” for the Prime Minister to make promises.
“There is no guarantees, there’s no quid pro quo, there is no written agreements here and there can’t be,” Mr Katter said.
He said he had asked Mr Turnbull about his policies on Mr Katter’s top 20 issues and was comfortable with the response, suggesting a level of mistrust in prime ministerial promises, allegedly based on his previous dealings with Tony Abbott.
“He can lie to me and I think that there was some misrepresentation the last time and I don’t mean to reflect upon Tony Abbott in any way in saying that,” Mr Katter said.
“Circumstances change but all the same I was given an undertaking on ethanol and that undertaking was not carried through.”
Mr Katter also indicated he would “tenaciously” oppose the government’s backpacker tax, which is currently under review amid a backlash from rural and regional MPs.
2.25pm: Katter-Xenophon ‘fortress of power’
Here’s more from Katter:
Mr Katter said his discussions with the Prime Minister had been amicable and pleasant, as his discussions with Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott were in the past. He said he believed Mr Turnbull had listened to his concerns.
“I think when you are on 74 seats and you need 76, I thought he was listening very closely,” Mr Katter said.
He said he had not signed any documents.
“There will be a vote of confidence and supply,” he said, adding that with fellow independents Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan vowing to remain neutral, there was no possibility of Labor forming government.
“So unless I give this undertaking, then I think we have a very bad situation in Australia which in all probability the government would be forced back to the people,” Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter said he would also be working closely with independent Senator Nick Xenophon, whose South Australian MP-elect Rebekha Sharkie will take up another crossbench seat, on the issue of foreign ownership of Australian land.
“Nick and I have had a very close working relationship over the years and I think we’ve created a bit of a fortress of power in Queensland,” Mr Katter said.
“I think we will be meeting with Nick later today or in the next two or three days. We have spoken on the telephone. Anyone following politics in Australia will know...I’ve got a lot of support from him over the years.”
1.55pm: Katter agrees to support Turnbull
Queensland independent MP Bob Katter has declared he will support a Turnbull Coalition government, after discussion with the Prime Minister.
“We do not want to go back to the polls, that should not be imposed upon the Australian people,” Mr Katter said. “So today we are announcing our support by supply and confidence for a Turnbull government.”
Mr Katter said he had made his decision “with no great enthusiasm”, stressing that his “very close” relationships with Labor figures such as Anthony Albanese and Wayne Swan had yielded “great benefits for Australia”.
“I do not intend to damage those friendships and I maintain my right to move at any point in time in another direction,” Mr Katter said.
He pointed out that he had supported Tony Abbott during the 2010 hung parliament, on the basis that Abbott got “more ticks” on Katter’s 20 most important issues.
“Later on, I gave my support, both for supply and confidence, to Kevin Rudd, because we were in a deep hole in the cattle industry and it necessitated me changing and I will maintain my
right to change at any point of time in the future,” Mr Katter said.
He also indicated that an agreement on funding for the Hell’s Gate dam in his electorate was key to his agreement with Malcolm Turnbull.
Mr Katter said he had also reached an agreement with Mr Turnbull on native title rights for indigenous Australians.
But he indicated he will pose a serious obstacle to the Coalition’s ABCC legislation, warning that he intends to maintain his very close affiliations with the trade union movement.
“If there is the slightest hint of union bashing, I can assure you all bets are off,” Mr Katter said.
We are here today to protect the right of people to collectively bargain, the employees of Australia and we will maintain our support for those trade unions as we have in the past.”
1.40pm:‘Time for sobriety’ on S&P: Morrison
Treasurer Scott Morrison has declared that Standard & Poor’s move to put Australia’s AAA credit rating on “negative watch” reinforces the government’s long-held position that fiscal consolidation cannot be postponed or slowed, as Labor intends to do.
Mr Morrison said the Coalition would form government again over the next few “days or weeks” and had every intention of maintaining the credibility of our AAA rating.
“It would be not the responsible thing to do in this environment to take policy decisions that would increase the deficit particularly, in (Labor’s) words, over the next few years,” Mr Morrison told his media conference in response to the S&P report.
“Because once you have run up a high deficit over the next couple of years, that increases the debt and you can’t get that money back.”
Mr Morrison stressed the S&P classification was a “negative watch” and not a downgrade, and urged calm, avoiding the question of the extent of his responsibility for the situation.
“I think it is a time for sobriety when it comes to responding to these measures,” Mr Morrison said.
“We’ve had the election so I don’t intend to engage in any political commentary around that. If others choose to do that, that’s a matter for them.
“I think what the Australian people want to be assured of today is that there is a clear plan, should we be able to form government, to maintain the fiscal health of this country and that is what the agencies are saying is necessary.”
Mr Morrison maintained the Coalition’s company tax cuts would boost economic growth, and emphasised that S&P’s position was based on concerns about the uncertain outcome of the election, and not about the Coalition’s budget.
1.30pm: Chilcot: Wilkie blames Howard for terror
Independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie has claimed the Lindt Cafe siege and 2005 Bali bombings would not have occurred if Australia did not enter the Iraq war in 2003, and blamed John Howard for the terror threat Australia currently faces.
CHILCOT REPORT: Blair stands by decision
1.05pm:Update of nine remaining seats
Of the nine seats still with a margin of less than 1 per cent, Labor is ahead in five and the Coalition four, but postal votes are flowing strongly towards the Liberals in several seats.
These are the AEC figures as at 12.30pm Thursday:
Hindmarsh – Labor ahead with 50.00% of the vote – Labor leads by 8 votes, a swing of +1.89
Forde – LNP by 50.32% – the LNP leads by 440, a swing of -4.06
Herbert – Labor by 50.40% – Labor leads by 620 votes, a swing of +6.57
Capricornia – Labor by 50.49% – Labor leads by 732 votes, a swing of +1.26
Cowan – Labor by 50.52% – Labor leads by 722 votes, a swing of +5.04
Gilmore – Liberals by 50.53% – The Liberals lead by 981 votes, a swing of -3.25
Flynn – Labor by 50.75% – Labor leads by 1,065 votes, a swing of +7.28
Dunkley – Liberals by 50.94% – The Liberals lead by 1,387 votes, a swing of -4.63
Chisholm – Liberals by 50.97% – The Liberals lead by 1,420 votes, a swing of +2.57
On these figures, the Coalition would win 74 seats, Labor would have 71 and Others 5. But counting continues to bring several more seats within the Coalition’s reach.
1pm:‘Sombre day for the economy’
Opposition treasury spokesman Chris Bowen has seized on Standard and Poor’s decision to place Australia’s AAA credit rating on “negative” watch, using the move to accuse the Coalition of three years of “policy missteps, false starts and missed opportunities”.
“Today is a sombre day for the Australian economy. Of course, Australia’s AAA credit rating is not being downgraded today but there is a clear indication from Standard & Poor’s that they are deeply concerned about the fiscal situation,” he said shortly after the Treasurer’s press conference in Sydney.
“And it has made the likelihood of a downgrade increase. Of course, during the recent election campaign, on behalf of the Labor Party, I warned the AAA credit rating was under real pressure.
“And of course what we see today is Standard & Poor’s calling out the Liberal National government for three years of fiscal failure and passing a vote of no confidence in this government’s ability to deal with the budget situation.
Of course, the Liberal and National parties said there was a budget emergency and that they would be the party to fix it and of course what we’ve seen is three years of policy missteps, false starts and missed opportunities, particularly since Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison took the reins we’ve seen a lack of strategy and a lack of coherence in their economic approach.”
12.45pm: Morrison, Bowen respond to S&P
Treasurer Scott Morrison has insisted S&P is concerned about the tight election outcome and not the budget and the actions the government has undertaken.
“The outcome of the election makes them concerned that the pace of fiscal consolidation may be postponed,” he told a media conference.
He said the government has been focused on the job of budget repair over the last three years.
“Everyone knows that but we remain committed to doing it and often at our great political peril because we were committed to achieving it,” he said.
S&P warned there is a one-in-three chance the rating could be lowered within two years if measures to improve the budget position are not passed by parliament.
“That means that we believe that fiscal consolidation cannot be postponed or slowed,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney.
Asked whether now was the right time for company tax cuts, Mr Morrison said: “What the right time is for now is for economic growth.” “The best way to shore up against the risk of parameter estimates, at least those that are potentially within your influence, is to drive economic growth,” Mr Morrison said.
“And so you have to have policies that drive economic growth and that was the core proposition behind our enterprise tax plan.”
Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen, who gave a media conference immediately after Mr Morrison, blamed the government for “three years of policy missteps, false starts and missed opportunities”.
“What we see is Standard and Poor’s calling out the Liberal National Party for three years of fiscal failure.”
full reports to come
12.40pm:Shorten safe: source
Bill Shorten will be endorsed to stay on as Labor leader at a caucus meeting in Canberra on Friday, AAP is reporting.
It is understood Anthony Albanese, who stood against Mr Shorten in 2013, will move a motion congratulating the Labor leader. The leadership is automatically thrown open in the wake of a Labor federal election loss.
Caucus returning officer Chris Hayes is expected to announce the decision tomorrow.
Left sources told AAP said a consensus had emerged around the need to be unified and not take the gloss off what was a strong election campaign by Labor, even though it didn’t win government.
12.30pm:Shorten’s thank you lap
As his chances of forming government dwindle, Bill Shorten continues is thank you tour of Australia, due to pop up in Western Australia later today.
The Opposition Leader has visited Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Tasmania since election night.
This afternoon he’s due to meet Labor’s new Western Australian MPs-elect in Armadale, in the new southeastern Perth seat of Burt.
Labor’s candidate in Burt, Matt Keogh, has been elected with 58.4 per cent of the two party preferred vote with 66.9 per cent counted.
In Cowan, in Perth’s north east, Labor’s Anne Aly is 722 votes ahead of sitting Liberal Luke Simpkins.
Labor has retained the seats of Brand, Fremantle and Perth.
INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: State of the seats
12.20pm:Full S&P statement
The Standard & Poor’s move follows an uncertain federal election result over the weekend, with S&P listing this as a key reason for the alteration in its outlook today.
“Given the outcome of the July 2 double-dissolution election, in which neither of the traditional governing parties may command a majority in either house, we believe fiscal consolidation may be further postponed,” the ratings agency said.
12pm: Dollar tumbles on outlook downgrade
The Australian dollar has tumbled and the local market has pared strong early gains after Standard & Poor’s became the first ratings agency to place Australia’s prized ‘AAA’ sovereign debt rating on ‘negative’ watch.
The group changed the outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ just days after all three major credit ratings agencies reaffirmed the country’s AAA status.
The move places policymakers on notice of a potentially damaging cut to the nation’s credit rating should there be no signs of an improvement in the fiscal outlook.
It follows an uncertain federal election result over the weekend, with S&P noting on Monday the political clouds decreased visibility on the outlook for the local economy.
The development pushed the Australian dollar down US0.5c to US74.75c, while the ASX200 pared gains in the aftermath.
The benchmark index is trading up 0.5 per cent at 11.45am (AEST), against gains of 0.9 per cent just prior to the S&P announcement.
FULL COVERAGE: S&P downgrades outlook
11.48am:S&P downgrades credit outlook
BREAKING: Ratings agency S&P has downgraded Australia’s credit outlook from stable to negative. AAA credit rating remains. Scott Morrison is due to give a media conference in Sydney in about half an hour.
more to come...
11.45am: Dutton leaves Abbott option open
Conservative cabinet minister Peter Dutton has left open the prospect of Tony Abbott being invited onto the frontbench despite Malcolm Turnbull repeatedly saying the ministry he took to the election would remain.
However the Prime Minister will need to fill three junior ministry positions after Liberal MPs Peter Hendy, Wyatt Roy and Richard Colbeck lost their seats.
Asked on 2GB radio if the Prime Minister should extend an olive branch to Mr Abbott and invite him into the new cabinet, Mr Dutton said the “first priority” was to form government.
“If the Prime Minister can form a government then decisions can be made about who’s offered portfolios and who can be in the ministry but at the moment our priority is to make sure we can form a government and implement what we think is a strong plan for the economy … as well as border protection,” he said.
Mr Dutton also threw his support behind Mr Turnbull saying he had a “great ability to connect with people” even after the Coalition lost key seats in western Sydney – home to John Howard’s “battlers”.
“The Prime Minister has a great ability to connect with people and I think you’ll see over the course of the next three years his leadership come into its own and that’s why all of us are very strongly supporting the Prime Minister,” Mr Dutton said.
11.30am: Leaders reach out to Wilkie
Independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie says he has spoken with both Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull, but will maintain his “no formal deals” stance.
Mr Wilkie hit out at Bob Brown for an opinion piece the former Greens leader wrote in today’s Hobart Mercury, attacking Mr Wilkie for forgoing gains for Tasmania in refusing to do a deal.
He said Mr Shorten had rung him on Sunday afternoon, and Malcolm Turnbull had rung him this morning.
“I am not going to go into the detail, it’s a confidential conversation between the PM and myself, but I just want to emphasise we’re keeping talking,” Mr Wilkie said.
“It’s looking more and more like Malcolm Turnbull will have either a clear majority of seats or be in a position perhaps not with my support but with the support of other crossbenchers to form government.
“It is in my electorate’s very best interests that I have a good relationship with the man who is increasingly looking like he will remain as PM.”
Mr Wilkie hit out at Dr Brown for his opinion piece.
“He knows full well that I went to the election with a commitment not to enter into any deal with any party to help them form government, so he’s criticising me for being now a man of my word,” Mr Wilkie said. “I’m very disappointed in Bob. I think it diminishes him.”
11.05am:Bandt warns PM, Katter against deal
Greens Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt has warned Malcolm Turnbull and Bob Katter against doing a deal on the Galilee coal basin in Queensland, which would constitute a “climate crime”.
Pre-empting any discussion of the issue ahead of the Prime Minister’s meeting with Mr Katter later today, Mr Bandt told ABC radio it was “worrying” that such a deal “might be discussed in horsetrading in the context of a minority parliament.”
“If you were the government you may be tempted to with the Galilee coal basin in Queensland, you may be tempted to want to tip government money into an uneconomical project, into what would be an environmental and a climate disaster, and from a climate point of view it would essentially be a criminal act to allow the coal that’s there to be dug up and burnt,” Mr Bandt said.
“That would be wrong, and I would hope that crossbenchers would not aid and abet a climate crime, so I will be watching the discussions over the next couple of days with interest, and I hope whatever gets discussed is transparent.”
Mr Bandt claimed that despite any deal between the Greens and the Coalition having been ruled out, all crossbenchers stood to make gains as a result of the close poll, regardless of whether they helped form a minority government.
“Whoever ends up forming government, and whichever crossbenchers end up supporting them, this is probably our best chance to get a national anti-corruption watchdog, it’s probably our best chance to get political donations reform and to do things like clean up entitlements within the parliamentary system,” Mr Bandt said.
He suggested pushing for 90 per cent Australian steel in commonwealth projects as another possible initiative crossbenchers might agree on.
11am: Chilcot ‘not about Australia’
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the Chilcot report into Tony Blair’s decision to involve Britain in the Iraq war is “not a report about the Australian government’s decisions”, refusing to say whether or not the government should follow Mr Blair’s example and apologise for a decision that has been found to have been based on flawed intelligence.
Pushed on Seven’s Sunrise this morning on the fact that Australia’s decisions to enter the war were based on the same intelligence, Ms Bishop said it was based on the best information we had at the time.
“I was in the party room. I recall very well the information that was presented to us. It was the best information that was available, and we took a decision at the time,” Mr Bishop said.
She said the government took responsibility for all decisions it made including taking Australia to war, but that the question of whether or not to apologise was a matter for former Prime Minister John Howard.
“The Australian government, both Labor and Liberal, the Australian government, the Australian Parliament, would take responsibility,” Ms Bishop said.
“I recall very well at the time, Kevin Rudd urging us to continue to support the United States, so it was a bipartisan position up to a point in relation to Iraq.”
Ms Bishop also reiterated her support for Malcolm Turnbull, stressing that he was the preferred Prime Minister all the way through the election campaign, and said she was confident the Coalition would win majority government.
PETER LEAHY: Ex army chief says some US decisions ‘a bit crook’
10.30am: PM now ‘very confident’
Malcolm Turnbull has hit the streets of Brisbane, chatting and snapping selfies with voters in the city’s Queen Street Mall with Sunshine State MPs and MPs-elect, Trevor Evans, Jane Prentice, Ross Vasta and Andrew Laming.
It’s the first time the Prime Minister has ventured out of Sydney since election night, unlike his opponent Bill Shorten, who has toured seats Labor won in NSW, Queensland and Tasmania in what some have described as a “victory lap”, despite the overall outcome of the election.
Mr Turnbull said he remained confident the Coalition could form a majority government, but was meeting with crossbenchers “in any event”.
He is scheduled to meet independent MP Bob Katter in Brisbane later today.
Mr Turnbull praised volunteers for doing a great job against opponents who ran a “very aggressive” campaign.
“They had the big Medicare lie which they were pushing very hard, directly, person to person with the robocalls, text messages and so forth, and so we needed more than ever strong support from volunteers on the ground and you guys delivered that and delivered it very effectively here in Brisbane,” Mr Turnbull told the volunteers.
In the seat of Brisbane MP-elect Trevor Evans had a two party preferred swing towards him of 1.39 per cent, while Jane Prentice had a 0.45 per cent swing in her favour in Ryan in Brisbane’s western suburbs, Ross Vasta had a 0.93 per cent swing against him in Bonner, in Brisbane’s east, and Andrew Laming had a 1.83 per cent swing against him in Bowman, further east.
Asked whether he would meet senator-elect Pauline Hanson while in Queensland, Mr Turnbull said: “I’ve got no plans to do that today, no.”
State of the seats
Here’s what happened in the closest seats yesterday:
• In Hindmarsh (SA) Labor’s lead was cut from 347 to 151. The Coalition is optimistic, with 2951 postals still to count.
• In Forde (Qld) Labor lost its lead of 104 with the LNP in front by 265.
• In Herbert (Qld) Labor’s lead of 694 is now 620. It’s “very, very close,” a Coalition campaigner has told our political correspondent David Crowe, with another 7493 postals yet to be counted.
• In Gilmore (NSW) the Liberal lead rose from 353 to 991.
• In Cowan (WA) Labor’s lead narrowed from 959 to 722. There are still 3426 postals to go but Labor candidate Anne Aly says they’re not breaking to Liberals
• In Capricornia (Qld) Labor’s lead reduced from 994 votes to 732.
• In Flynn (Qld), Labor’s lead of 1824 was cut to 1065. There are still 8131 postal votes to be counted, but Crowey has been told they’re breaking 65 per cent to the Coalition.
Three Victorian seats: La Trobe, Dunkley and Chisholm, round out the top ten closest seats, and the Coalition is looking increasingly safe in all three:
• In La Trobe, where there has not been any counting since Tuesday, the Liberals lead by 1350 votes.
• In Dunkley, the Liberal lead of 421 yesterday increased to 1387.
• In Chisholm, the Liberal lead of 362 votes yesterday increased to 1394 votes. This would be the only seat the Liberals have won from Labor this election.
Of the previously close seats, Peter Dutton has increased his lead in Dickson by 359 votes to 1627 and the Liberals are now more than 5000 votes ahead of the Nick Xenophon Team in Grey.
Labor has bolted away from the LNP’s Wyatt Roy in Longman after the hint of a comeback yesterday, with the ALP’s lead growing from 1730 to 2092.
In the NSW seat of Robertson, the Liberals increased their lead from 1183 to 1804, and in the Queensland seat of Petrie, the LNP increased a 1695 lead to 1922.
8.40am:Shorten’s chief of staff to quit
Bill Shorten’s chief of staff Cameron Milner has indicated he will be resigning, following Labor’s strong but likely unsuccessful polling.
Mr Milner has told ALP chiefs he cannot continue to do his job from Brisbane and is resigning for family reasons, News Corp Australia newspapers are reporting.
Mr Milner last night confirmed he planned to return to the private sector.
“When I took the job I gave everyone a commitment until the next campaign,’’ he told News Corp. “I stepped away from a very successful business career to get Bill Shorten elected.
“Now the campaign is over I plan to return to the private sector and I wish Bill and the Labor Party all the best in the future.”
On the weekend News Corp’s Sunday papers reported claims - denied as baseless by Mr Milner - that he had offended a young staffer working at ALP HQ by texting her to invite her to dinner.
7.50am: Savva on Turnbull
Political commentator Niki Savva says Malcolm Turnbull needs to move out of Point Piper and use the Lodge as his base and principal residence from which he can launch sustained “listening” tours around regional Australia.
Read her analysis of the election here: This looks like a job for good Malcolm
7.35am: Voters worried about Medicare: poll
The future of Medicare and healthcare were the top issues in voters’ minds as they cast their ballots in the federal election.
A pre-election poll of 1000 families by JWS Research showed 38 per cent of voters rated Medicare as an important issue, with hospitals and healthcare sitting at 39 per cent.
Jobs and employment followed, according to the survey results published in today’s News Corp dailies.
Morrison: Medicare ‘can’t be a money pit’
7.30am:Bernardi fuels leadership talk
Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has fuelled speculation over Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, saying it’s too early to say whether the Prime Minister will resign or be replaced after the election result.
The conservative senator says the election result is a “disaster” that began unfolding when the Coalition toppled Tony Abbott as Prime Minister.
He told the Nine network it’s not yet clear what that means for Mr Turnbull’s future.
“It’s too early to say. I mean I want to see a Liberal government,” Senator Bernardi said.
“I do not believe it’s in the interests of the country to have a Labor Shorten government, but ultimately how this is going to play out is anyone’s guess at the moment.”
Read Dennis Shanahan’s story on Bernardi’s plans to create a right-wing Get Up!-like election campaigning force: Cory’s ‘conservative liferaft’
7.15am:Overnight wrap
DAVID CROWE
Malcolm Turnbull has vaulted closer to forming a majority government that can survive without formal deals with independent MPs as the Coalition gains thousands of votes in the handful of seats that will decide the election.
As the Coalition widened its lead in three crucial electorates, reversed Labor’s lead in another and gained ground in five seats with a chance of victory, another voting problem emerged last night in Western Australia.
The commission’s state manager Marie Neilson admitted it had been forced to throw out 105 Senate ballot papers because voters were wrongly given Victorian Senate papers.
Ms Neilson said she took responsibility for the “administrative error” discovered in counting late yesterday. It happened because a mobile polling team in the WA division of Pearce was given the incorrect papers.
Most attention last night, however, was focused on a dramatic shift in the tallies that renewed Mr Turnbull’s confidence he would gain at least 76 of the 150 House seats to avoid minority government, which created constant turmoil for Julia Gillard after the 2010 election.
Bill Shorten conceded yesterday Mr Turnbull could “scrape home” after days of speculation about a hung parliament, but insisted the Prime Minister would have no mandate for change following the tight election result.
While the Labor leader continued his “victory lap” by visiting voters in northern Tasmania, Mr Turnbull sought to assure Australians that he was getting back to work, joining Scott Morrison for a briefing from Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens on the economy.
“We are confident we’ll have a majority in our own right,” Mr Turnbull said in Sydney before the meeting.
In a key upset, Labor lost its lead in the Queensland coastal seat of Forde as the Coalition seized a majority of the postal votes still being counted, fuelling optimism within the government the same trend could play out in other electorates.
The Liberal National Party member for Forde, Bert van Manen, said he was “somewhat more optimistic” last night but cautioned there were still thousands of votes to be counted.
Coalition campaigners believe they have at least 70 seats with another nine in sight, while the Forde turnaround meant Labor could be confident of only 66 seats.
The Coalition is increasingly sure of winning three seats still considered undecided — Gilmore on the NSW south coast, and Dunkley and Chisholm in suburban Melbourne — and is steadily eroding Labor’s lead in the Adelaide electorate Hindmarsh.
Using past voting trends to calculate how postal votes favour more conservative candidates, the Coalition is confident of reaching 75 with Forde, Gilmore, Dunkley, Chisholm and Hindmarsh.
But Mr Turnbull’s hope of forming majority government depends on gaining at least one of another four undecided electorates.
In Herbert, the Queensland electorate centred on Townsville, the Coalition has whittled away some of Labor’s lead but is still 620 votes behind and can only win if it secures a comfortable majority of more than 6,000 postal votes and 2,000 absentee votes yet to be counted.
“We have had two good days but we are still behind,” said local MP Ewen Jones, who took the seat from Labor in 2010. “I am as confident as I can be in this situation but I would rather be having root canal.”
The Coalition hopes are founded on the analysis of postal votes counted over the past few days, including ballot papers that might have been filled out before Labor’s “privatising Medicare” scare gained momentum in the last weeks of the eight-week election campaign.
The numbers of postal votes have jumped to about 11,000 in Forde, compared to 8,000 at the last election, and increased similarly to about 12,000 in Flynn, a trend attributed to holding the election during school holidays.
None of the absentee votes have been counted in the key electorates being watched by Labor and the Coalition, which throws further wildcards into the contest after postal votes are processed.
Amid frustrations over the AEC’s slow progress with the ballot papers, the electorate of Capricornia in northern Queensland saw no change in its postal tally yesterday with 9,493 yet to be counted.
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LNP ditch Herbert challenge
The Liberal National Party won’t pursue a by-election in Herbert after it struggled to build a “strong” case for legal action.
By-election case tough for LNP
The Liberal National Party is struggling to build a ‘strong’ case for a by-election in the Townsville seat of Herbert.
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