Aussie PM takes ‘full responsibility’ for poll debacle

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian leader Malcolm Turnbull took full responsibility yesterday for a disastrous election campaign which has left his government in doubt, but said he would not resign.

The final result from Saturday polls is still unclear, but Turnbull’s conservative coalition has lost its comfortable majority in Canberra’s 150-seat House of Representatives.

The government and the opposition Labor Party are currently each short of the 76 seats needed to govern, and with the vote count ongoing, there is the prospect of a hung parliament.

“I want to make it quite clear that as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party, I take full responsibility for our campaign,” Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.

“The Australian people have voted, and we respect the result.”

In sharp contrast to an angry speech in the hours after the vote, he acknowledged there was a swing against his Liberal/National coalition, but said general voter dissatisfaction also played a part.

Millions of Australians cast their votes for independents and minor parties, resulting in them likely winning at least five seats in the lower house.

It is a similar story in the upper house Senate, with anti-immigration firebrand Pauline Hanson set to make a return to Canberra after an absence of nearly 20 years.

“There is no doubt that there is a level of disillusionment with politics, with government, and with the major parties. Our own included. We note that. We respect it,” Turnbull said.

But the millionaire former banker and barrister also attacked his Labor opponents, accusing them of a dishonest scare campaign targeting the nation’s universal healthcare system which he said amounted to a “shocking lie.”

“There is no doubt that Labor cynically abused the trust of Australians by lying to them about this,” Turnbull said, referring to Labor’s suggestion that the government planned to privatize Medicare.

“What we have to recognize is that many Australians were troubled by it. They believed it or at least had anxieties raised with it.”

On Monday, Labor leader Bill Shorten urged the prime minister to resign, saying: “Mr. Turnbull clearly doesn’t know what he is doing. Quite frankly, I think he should quit.”

But Turnbull, who became prime minister in September after ousting his colleague Tony Abbott in a party room vote, said he remained confident of forming a majority government.

The 61-year-old dismissed the idea of quitting, saying his job was to “get on and govern.”

Within minutes of Turnbull’s press conference, Shorten raised the prospect of the prime minister calling a snap election.

“I have no doubt that the easy option for him would be to pull the rip cord and have another election. But Australians don’t want that,” Shorten said.