In a post on Andrew Bolt's Herald Sun blog just after 10pm on election day, the conservative columnist and television host called on Malcolm Turnbull to resign.
Titled "Malcolm, You're Finished," Mr Bolt addressed the Prime Minister directly.
"Malcolm, you assassinated a Liberal Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, who’d won an election by a huge margin," he wrote. "You then treated the Liberal base like dirt, smashing it with a huge super tax, refusing to speak to conservative journalists, repeatedly humiliating Abbott."
"You referred to the colonial settlement of Australia as an 'invasion' and even held an end-of-Ramadan meal with known Muslim bigots," Mr Bolt said, in reference to the Prime Minister's recent iftar dinner.
Malcolm Turnbull called an early double dissolution election after pushing through Senate voting reforms in an effort to clear away a troublesome Senate cross-bench. Despite that, early results show a number of minor parties are likely to claim senate seats, including One Nation.
"You have, if anything, lost ground in the Senate, which will block most of your plans," Mr Bolt wrote. "There is no way you can seriously claim that this result is better than anything Abbott could have achieved."
"You have been a disaster. You betrayed Tony Abbott and then led the party to humiliation, stripped of both values and honour," Mr Bolt wrote. "Resign."
Mr Turnbull, already faced with internal divisions within his party before the election, will likely have to govern with a reduced majority or in a minority government, if the Coalition retains power at all.
Final results from the election are unlikely to be known for several days.
