Key Points
- The Greens remain hopeful of securing a record three seats in the House of Representatives
- In the Senate, are expected to hold 12 spots, with One Nation likely to hold two seats.
The Greens remain hopeful of securing a record three seats in the House of Representatives by winning electorates previously held by the two major parties.
In the Senate, the Greens are expected to hold 12 spots, with One Nation likely to hold two seats.
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts is continuing his Senate term, but the party's leader Pauline Hanson was up for re-election at the 21 May poll.
She was previously for Queensland's sixth Senate spot. But Australian Electoral Commission figures on Thursday showed her provisional quota — which provides an indication as to the potential for a party's candidates to be elected — was over half, compared to Legalise Cannabis Australia's which was just more than a third.
A candidate needs to gain a full quota of the formal votes for their candidate to be elected to the Senate.
The Coalition is on track to hold 31 seats, with 26 for Labor in the 76-seat chamber.
Meanwhile, Julian Simmonds has become the latest Liberal MP to concede defeat following the federal election.
The MP for the Brisbane seat of Ryan made the concession on his Facebook page, with the winner expected to be confirmed as Greens candidate Elizabeth Watson-Brown.
"I'm incredibly proud of what we've been able to achieve together, especially in a time of unprecedented adversity," Mr Simmonds wrote on Thursday.
He said the Liberal Party was "crying out for more good people in politics".
"This team of young, passionate professionals give me the greatest hope that our country's best days lie ahead," Mr Simmonds said of his staff and volunteers.
Mr Simmonds posted a photograph of his boots from the Brisbane floods as a "reminder of where we've been, what we've achieved together, and that even when all hope seemed lost, we never give up".
Greens leader Adam Bandt says the minor party will not yet be conceding or declaring victory in Brisbane and the Victorian seat of Macnamara, where the margin of votes is slim.
He said anyone already allocating those seats to one party or another was wrong.
"I'm still very hopeful that (Macnamara candidate) Steph Hodgins-May is in with a chance of getting over the line and we will be looking at every last vote," Mr Bandt told reporters in Melbourne.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has not yet provided a two-candidate preferred count in Macnamara, while the primary vote race between Labor, the Liberals and Greens remains very close.
In Brisbane, Labor's Madonna Jarrett is holding on to her primary-vote lead over the Greens, which will put her in a strong position to take the seat from Liberal MP Trevor Evans.
She is 672 votes ahead of the Greens' Stephen Bates.
As of Thursday afternoon, the AEC has Labor with 75 seats to the coalition's 60, the Greens with three seats, 12 on the cross bench and the seat of Macnamara without a preference count.
The commission is conducting new postal vote counts for the lower house and Senate as well as the rolling process of "mandatory secondary counts" involving fresh scrutiny of ballots cast.
ABC was declaring the Tasmanian seat of Lyons a hold for Labor MP Brian Mitchell.
Mr Mitchell told news agency AAP while he was "quietly confident" of a win, there were still thousands of postal and absentee votes to count.
In the tightest race, Liberal candidate Andrew Constance is 286 votes ahead of sitting Labor MP Fiona Phillips in the NSW south coast electorate of Gilmore.
Outgoing minister Michael Sukkar is in a more comfortable position, 1030 votes ahead of Labor rival Matt Gregg for the Victorian seat of Deakin.
