Labor is already criticising Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's decision to call a double-dissolution election as the vote count leaves the outcome still very much in question.
Labor frontbencher Brendan O'Connor has told the ABC the decision has proved to be a disaster for Mr Turnbull.
And he has criticised the Prime Minister for basing the decision on parliament's blocking of a Coalition move to revive the Australian Building and Construction Commission. (ABCC)
"On the double dissolution, I mean, this has been a disaster for Malcolm Turnbull. He went to the election, called an election early ... you might remember, he prorogued* the parliament, or, in fact, he managed to persuade the Governor-General to do so, based on this double dissolution. He mentioned the ABCC four times in 56 days. He spoke more about it last night after the election than he did during the election campaign. It was a phoney war. The people of Australia were concerned about healthcare and jobs and education, and he completely got it wrong."
There are also indications some within the Government ministry question whether the Coalition could have fared better if Mr Turnbull had called an election earlier in the year.
The idea would have been to capture the popularity of the new prime minister in the days after he successfully challenged and replaced Tony Abbott.
On the same program, Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg has acknowledged the party had been polling higher in earlier opinion polls.
"I think (Treasurer) Scott Morrison put it well last night, which is he's not going to get into that hypothetical because we'll never know. But, clearly, when Tony (Abbott) was the leader, we were behind in the polls. Now we went up in the polls significantly earlier this year, (an) election wasn't called, and now we've had an election later in the year. But I think Malcolm Turnbull still remains a popular figure for the broad number of Australian people. "
Attorney-General George Brandis says calling the double dissolution was not a strategy for the election but a strategy for trying to revive the Building and Construction Commission.
But he has acknowledged on the Nine Network the results now show such a move probably will still lack support.
"The double-dissolution strategy was a course of action decided on by the Government for a specific purpose, and that was to get two industrial bills through a joint sitting if need be. Now it may well be -- it seems likely, in fact -- that there won't be a majority for that. Certainly, the Government is not going to have a majority in the joint sitting. But the double dissolution was for that specific purpose. It wasn't part of a broader electoral strategy."
Malcolm Turnbull sharply attacked Labor in his post-election-night speech over the Building and Construction Commission and the Opposition's campaign stance on Medicare.
He again accused Labor of lying about the Government's plans for Medicare.
But Opposition frontbencher Richard Marles has told the Nine Network that Labor had a legitimate reason to attack the Government on the issue.
"On the issue of Medicare, on the issue of Medicare, it is clear that Medicare is being frozen. They don't deny it. And we go, 'Unfreeze it,' and it was absolutely a legitimate issue on which people were divided."
Largely unnoticed amid the focus on the two major parties is the apparent return of former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson to the parliament.
Ms Hanson, who rose to prominence in 1996, is vying 20 years later for one of the final Queensland Senate seats against other minor parties.
Senator Nick Xenophon, whose team hopes to win three South Australian Senate spots, has told the Seven Network he is prepared to work with her despite their differing views.
"I fundamentally disagree with a number of aspects of her agenda -- her views on immigration, on Islam -- but I will sit down and work constructively with anyone in the parliament for the common good. Even if I fundamentally disagree with someone, if they're elected to the parliament, I will do my best to engage with them constructively without compromising my beliefs that immigration is a good thing for this country."
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