Malcolm Turnbull is confident of holding 77 seats in the new parliament as he faces local and global challenges to delivering on his election promises.
With Labor claiming the South Australian seat of Hindmarsh on Wednesday, only the fate of the Queensland electorate of Herbert is unresolved. But Ewen Jones, who holds the seat for the coalition, was edging ahead in counting on Wednesday and a win would give the government 77 seats in the 150-seat lower house. This would enable the coalition to return Victorian MP Tony Smith as speaker and still have a majority on the floor for votes.
The prime minister and his deputy Julie Bishop met with Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and his deputy Fiona Nash in Canberra on Wednesday, a day after Nationals members met to discuss a new coalition agreement. Labor leader Bill Shorten has called for the agreement to be publicly released, saying it is "not internal party business, It is national business," Mr Shorten said in Adelaide.
Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra that while the Nationals' extra numbers would give the party two extra ministers, he would not be releasing any details of the agreement. He said there was no mystery to the coalition's policy commitments as they had all been outlined during the election.
One of the domestic issues to be raised with Mr Turnbull at next Monday's coalition party room meeting will be superannuation policy. Mr Turnbull said the superannuation laws would be presented to parliament as outlined in the May budget.
Mr Turnbull faces a number of immediate global issues - Britain's exit from the European Union and China's refusal to accept a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague declaring China had no historical title over the South China Sea. The prime minister has commissioned a report by Treasury and financial regulators into the impact of the Brexit, but the fallout from the South China Sea issue may be weightier.
