Senior coalition members are growing more confident of winning a majority of seats, as federal election vote counting continues.
Coalition strategists are pinning their hopes on hundreds of thousands of postal and absentee votes which have yet to be counted.
The latest figures from the Australian Electoral Commission leave the coalition with 70 lower house seats - six short of a majority - to Labor's 67 - with eight contests hanging in the balance.
They include: Capricornia, Cowan, Forde, Herbert, Hindmarsh where Labor leads and Chisholm, Dunkley, Gilmore where the coalition is ahead.
In the eight seats in balance, more than 72,000 vote envelopes awaited processing late on Wednesday morning.
Treasurer Scott Morrison is remaining upbeat.
"The government is still on track to form a majority government," he told ABC radio.
He accused Bill Shorten of running around the country "arrogantly proclaiming a victory that he hasn't achieved".
The opposition leader will be in Launceston on Wednesday afternoon to congratulate Labor's "three amigos" - Ross Hart in Bass, Justine Keay in Braddon and Brian Mitchell in Lyons - who ousted sitting Liberal members.
Having faced a strong campaign from Labor on "saving Medicare", Mr Morrison said a re-elected Turnbull government would need to assure Australians about its commitment to health services.
He admitted there were some "serious issues" stemming from the 2014 budget which Labor fed on during the campaign.
But that did not make the Labor campaign "any less of a lie".
Liberal National Party MP for Herbert Ewen Jones said his team had run a strong postal vote campaign and he expected to scrape in by as many as 500 votes, despite trailing by 694 at last count.
But he said the government would need to address short-term concerns about unemployment and foster greater co-operation in parliament to head off minor parties such as One Nation.
"The thing I was most proud of is Malcolm (Turnbull) was out there saying: `We have to be bold and brave, the future is here, let's run with it'," Mr Jones told AAP on Wednesday.
"Pauline Hanson was saying: `Come here, it's nice and warm in this cave'."
The latest counting in Forde narrowed the gap between LNP MP Bert Van Manen and challenger Des Hardman to 79 votes in Labor's favour.
Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said he was acutely aware of the perception that the commission is not making sufficient progress on the count.
"I wish I could finish every task and produce a safe result today - right now. However, this is one of the most important tasks in Australia," he said.
The AEC is looking into claims ballot papers in the close West Australian seat of Cowan were not stored or signed off properly.
Labor's Anne Aly has a narrow 750 vote lead over Liberal incumbent Luke Simpkins.
AEC spokesman Phil Diak wasn't worried by the claims, saying the votes were always in secure containers.
A form which records the seals on the boxes was with the officer-in-charge rather than transferred, but it was always in the AEC's possession, he told Sky News.
Mr Diak also said it was not uncommon for some votes not to be initialed given the large volumes.
