Postal vote counting in the federal election is due to get under way with one NSW lower house seat and the state's Senate line-up yet to be decided.
Electoral commission officials are on Tuesday due to start counting roughly one million votes submitted by mail as Australians wait to see whether the coalition can win enough seats to form a majority government.
The NSW south coast electorate of Gilmore is one of nine seats still in doubt nationwide following Saturday's too-close-to-call ballot.
Gilmore's sitting member, Liberal Ann Sudmalis, is narrowly ahead of Labor's Fiona Philips in one of the country's tightest election battles.
The coalition believes it already has 70 of the 76 House of Representative seats needed to form a majority government and strategists are banking on the traditional postal vote bias towards coalition MPs.
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However, a minority Turnbull government is currently the most likely outcome, with the possibility of up to 10 crossbenchers in the new Senate - including One Nation founder Pauline Hanson and shock jock Derryn Hinch.
NSW Premier Mike Baird has warned incoming senators to put policy ahead of politics or risk the nation losing its triple-A credit rating.
