Malcolm Turnbull has accepted full responsibility for the coalition's campaign that might result in it losing majority government.
"Absolutely full responsibility for the campaign," the prime minister told reporters in Sydney.
"The Australian people have voted, and we respect the result."
Mr Turnbull conceded there was a level of disillusionment with politics, government, and the major parties.
"We need to listen very carefully to the concerns of the Australian people expressed through this election."
Mr Turnbull again accused Labor of cynically abusing the trust of Australians by lying to them about a secret coalition plan for the privatisation of Medicare.
"This was a shocking lie. I'm not going to pretend it's anything else.
"But a fact that significant numbers of people believed it or at least believed it enough to change their vote, tells us that we have work to do and we are committed to that."
Mr Turnbull said the government would have to do more to reaffirm the people's faith in the coalition's commitment to health and to Medicare.
