Voters have turned away from the once exalted Liberal leader and delivered a harsh rebuke to his policies and his increasingly fragmented team.

The oft repeated "jobs and growth" slogan was simple but not effective and has failed to convince Australia the Coalition should be returned to govern in its own right.

Mr Turnbull will on Sunday have to deal with the likelihood of a hung parliament and an unsettled Coalition team.

Australia has demonstrated its opposition to the Turnbull government's policy program and instead delivered a somewhat surprising boost to opposition leader Bill Shorten's Labor troops.

While Mr Shorten was down for the count early on in the historically long election campaign he mounted a strong fightback in the dying days.

The fierce campaign against the privatisation of Medicare and the cash splash on health and education has appealed to voters.

Mr Shorten was tight-lipped about his future this week and the strong Labor vote could see him stave off a challenge to the party leadership should they fall agonisingly short.

With some pundits still predicting a narrow Coalition victory it is possible that Mr Turnbull will be returned — if that is the case he will need to take a hard look at what exactly has gone wrong.

That's if he's still the leader of the party, with this election result certainly to raise questions over his capacity to continue to front the Liberal party.

A hung parliament will present an entirely different scenario for both

There were no surprises for ACT candidates in the House of Representatives or the Senate, with sitting members returned comfortably.