A prominent teal independent is among incumbents still waiting to learn if they will keep their seat in federal parliament.
Monique Ryan’s anxious wait for a result in her leafy inner-east Melbourne electorate of Kooyong will continue into Thursday as she faces a challenge from Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer.
It is one of 11 seats still classified by the ABC as too close to call, five days after Labor claimed a landslide victory at Saturday’s election.
With about 5000 postal votes still to count, Kooyong could go either way, election analyst Kevin Bonham said.
Fellow teal independent Nicolette Boele is facing a tight race to capture the Sydney north shore seat of Bradfield against Liberal hopeful Gisele Kapterian.
The movement suffered a blow in the Melbourne bayside electorate of Goldstein, where former Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson unseated Zoe Daniel.
Greens leader Adam Bandt is set to join Liberal counterpart Peter Dutton in the departures lounge after the ABC declared Labor’s Sarah Witty as the winner in his seat of Melbourne.
Mr Bandt has resisted conceding, with up to 15,000 absentee votes yet to be counted.
The Greens have lost three of their four lower house seats with Elizabeth Watson-Brown fighting to defend her Brisbane seat of Ryan, but the minor party is set to hold the balance of the power in the Senate.
Labor is projected to win at least 89 seats, consigning the coalition to about 40 seats.
Despite its election dominance, Labor faces an uncertain battle to retain two seats: Bendigo in regional Victoria, where the Nationals have splashed the cash, and the ACT seat of Bean which is under threat from independent Jessie Price.
The count was turning to the tail-end of postal and absentee votes and out-of-division pre-polls, Dr Bonham said.
On primary votes, absentee votes tended to favour the Greens and be bad for the Liberals, which Dr Bonham said could be a boost for struggling inner-city teals.
“Often independents crash and burn on absent votes,” he told AAP.
“But if Labor and the Greens are doing well, they might get preferences out of them.”
Labor’s caucus will meet in Canberra on Friday before the likely unveiling of a new-look cabinet on Monday.
The ministry is set to be sworn in on Tuesday and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed he will travel to Indonesia the following day to meet President Prabowo Subianto.
“We have no more important relationship than Indonesia,” Mr Albanese told the ABC’s 7.30.
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