Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has congratulated Liberal candidate Andrew Hastie in winning the West Australian seat of Canning at Saturday's by-election.
Announcing his new ministry on Sunday after ousting Tony Abbott from the Liberal leadership last week, Mr Turnbull said it was critical his government was one for the future.
"You saw in the Canning by-election - where Andrew Hastie won so well and I congratulate Andrew on his victory .... how the Labor Party was trying to frighten the citizens of Canning back into poverty, trying to scare them about the future," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Mr Turnbull was wrong and the only people who got frightened by the Labor campaign in Canning were the Liberals.
"That's why they got rid of Mr Abbott," he told reporters in Melbourne.
While there was a swing of nearly seven per cent against Mr Hastie in the former Liberals safe seat, it was smaller than the 10 per cent predicted in some opinion polls.
Senior Liberals believe the result is a great victory for Mr Turnbull's new leadership.
But West Australian senator Mathias Cormann declined to say whether the result would have been any different under Mr Abbott.
"The truth is we are never going to know what the result would have been if we had not changed leaders on Monday night," Senator Cormann told Sky News.
"This is a great victory for the Liberal Party under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull."
Liberal NSW senator Arthur Sinodinos said the result was better than the government would have expected at the beginning of the campaign.
Mr Hastie was a strong Liberal candidate, and Mr Turnbull had sent a message to voters that the government was listening and wanted to regain their trust, he told ABC television.
But Liberal South Australian senator Cory Bernardi did not believe there was any sign of a lift in the Liberals' vote as a result of moving to Mr Turnbull.
"Not based on anything I knew beforehand," Senator Bernardi told Network Ten.
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