MALCOLM Turnbull was hanging on in a cliffhanger contest last night that could see him form government with a fragile majority.
The Prime Minister was clawing his way back with a reduced majority that saw some of his key plotters dumped by voters and raised the daunting prospect of a hung Parliament.
WA might save Mr Turbull the ignominy of being turfed out of government, with the Coalition performing better here.
At 9pm, the Liberal Party had secured 74 seats, two seats short of a majority. The Labor Party had secured 66 seats, the Greens one and independents four. Five seats remained up for grabs.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said last night she would be "forever grateful" to WA for not abandoning the Liberals, and possibly saving the Coalition from defeat.
"I am very proud of my state," Ms Bishop said.
"If we are able to hold on to the seats we won in 2013 I will be forever grateful to the people of WA." The Coalition was hopeful it could secure 77 or 78 seats in the 150-seat Parliament. It needs 76 seats to govern.
If Mr Turnbull can form government in the days ahead, he faces a party room revolt over superannuation, with former Senate leader Eric Abetz warning MPs would overturn the retrospective changes to super nest eggs proposed by Treasurer Scott Morrison.
Last night, as the Prime Minister remained holed up in his Point Piper mansion, the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce flatly rejected calls for Mr Turnbull to resign.
"I disagree with that. I don't think the Australian people want the revolving door of prime ministers. I've spoken to Malcolm a few times tonight," Mr Joyce said.
The failure of Labor Party to secure seats in Victoria despite swings across Australia was one of the small silver linings in a nail-biting night for the Prime Minister.
ALP officials feared the party was set to go backwards and lose the Labor-held seat of Chisholm which was a hot spot for anger over the Andrews Government's war with firefighters.
Last night, the Liberal-held seat of La Trobe and the ALP seats of Chisholm and Batman were still in play.
Labor leader Bill Shorten earlier declared he was "ready to serve". Gains in Western Sydney and Tasmania was keeping the ALP's hopes alive. "I am absolutely sure Labor is closing at the right time," Mr Shorten said earlier in the day.
"We are ready to serve. I hope that I and Labor have done enough to earn the votes of the Australian people.
"But I know now it is in the hands of the Australian people themselves to decide the future, to decide this election, and I make one last election day promise - we will not let you down." The Labor leader needed to win around 19 seats to govern in its own right. The rise and rise of Nick Xenophon was the big story in South Australia. Former federal government minister Jamie Briggs has been dumped from his seat of   Mayo with Xenophon candidate Rebekha Sharkie taking the prize scalp.
Senator Xenophon was also on track to pick up three South Australian seats in the upper house.
Senior Liberals were trying to be positive in the face of bad results. "We always knew this election was going to be very tight," Treasurer Scott Morrison said last night.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott appeared to take a veiled swipe at Mr Turnbull during an interview with broadcaster Alan Jones.
Asked what it felt like to be an "anonymous figure", Mr Abbott said: "It's not about me.
"Egomaniacs normally get found out very quickly in this business and that's as it should be," he said.
A big scare campaign on Medicare was driving the ALP's political comeback. Senior Labor figure Penny Wong said her party had the most to celebrate, with the result still in doubt. "There's only one side tonight that is already making excuses and that's the coalition," she said.
Labor frontbencher Kim Carr was also jubilant. "This is a stunning result for Labor and the labour movement," he said.Results from around the nation Pages 46-49