Australia faces an anxious wait after voters delivered a possible hung parliament or bare coalition majority at the federal election.
Senior Liberals remained upbeat on Saturday night, following the 3.2 per cent swing against the government.
ABC modelling was showing the coalition holding 74 seats to Labor's 66, with one Green, four independents and five seats in doubt - based on a two-party vote of 50-50.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said three years after Tony Abbott unseated the Labor government the coalition had "lost their mandate".
"Whatever happens next week, Mr Turnbull will never be able to claim that the people of Australia have adopted his ideological agenda," Mr Shorten told a gathering of Labor faithful in Melbourne.
Labor was expected to pick up the coalition seats of Eden-Monaro, Macarthur, Macquarie, Lindsay in NSW, Longman and Herbert in Queensland, Bass, Braddon and Lyons in Tasmania, Solomon (Northern Territory), Hindmarsh (South Australia) and Burt (Western Australia).
The coalition was on track to pick up the Labor seat of Chisholm, while the Nick Xenophon Team claimed the Liberal seat of Mayo in SA.
Tight contests were under way in Forde, Petrie and Capricornia (QLD), Gilmore (NSW) and Cowan (WA).
"I believe we'll be able to form a majority government," Treasurer Scott Morrison said.
However his cabinet colleague George Brandis said a hung parliament was a "live possibility".
Labor campaign spokeswoman Penny Wong said Malcolm Turnbull, who took over the Liberal leadership from Tony Abbott in September, was now "in enormous strife" within his own party.
Pauline Hanson, the One Nation founder, will take a seat in the Senate and could bring her Queensland running mate with her, joining a crossbench of up to 12 members.
Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said a hung parliament was "hypothetical" and he did not believe the Australian people wanted to continue the "revolving door of prime ministers".
Mr Morrison said it was "highly unlikely" Mr Abbott would have taken the government to victory and he remained supportive of Mr Turnbull.
Coalition figures laid much of the blame on Labor's Medicare campaign, describing it as dishonest.
Former treasurer Peter Costello said Mr Turnbull should have held an election when his popularity was at its peak in late 2015.
The Greens were on track to hold Melbourne and could pick up the Labor seat of Batman.
Independent Bob Katter will hold his seat of Kennedy, with the Nick Xenophon Team's Rebekha Sharkie set to join him on the crossbench alongside Andrew Wilkie (Denison) and Cathy McGowan (Indi).
Mr Joyce held his NSW seat of New England against a challenge by former member Tony Windsor, while Mr Windsor's former crossbench colleague Rob Oakeshott has fallen short in Cowper.
The strongest swings against the coalition were in Tasmania (8.8 per cent), the Northern Territory (nine per cent) and South Australia (3.9 per cent).
But the government's vote held up strongest in Victoria and the ACT.
Mr Turnbull lost frontbench colleagues Peter Hendy and Wyatt Roy, as well as former minister Jamie Briggs.
