Malcolm Turnbull is certain to form government, but it will be days before it is clear if the Prime Minister will have to rely on the crossbench to prop up the Coalition.
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After receiving the support of Queensland independent Bob Katter on Thursday, Mr Turnbull received the backing of a second crossbench MP, Victorian independent Cathy McGowan, to give supply and confidence on Friday while a third independent, Tasmanian Andrew Wilkie, made a similar pledge.
Those pledges effectively ensured Mr Turnbull should be able to, at the very least, claim 76 seats and minority government and what is now at issue is whether the Coalition can win 76 seats and form a majority government.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten - who received the unanimous backing of the Labor caucus on Friday to remain leader - predicted Australians would head back to the polls by the end of the year, while admitting the Coalition was set to scrape home.
The Prime Minister faces a fierce fight with the Senate to pass key elements of his budget, with Labor, the Greens, and an expanded Senate crossbench likely to force him to negotiate over his 10-year company tax cut plan.
Sections of the Coalition partyroom remain furious with Mr Turnbull for running what is now widely considered to have been a lacklustre campaign in which the central message on jobs and growth did not cut through, particularly in regional areas.
Coalition MPs have publicly excoriated Labor for its "Mediscare" privatisation campaign. In private, some now concede it worked brilliantly for the opposition.
Despite the disquiet, cabinet ministers and backbenchers have locked in behind Mr Turnbull - other than a disaffected few.
Meanwhile, ratings agency Standard and Poor's warned the federal government on Friday that it had no time to waste and must begin repairing the budget, and that there was no more room for "slippage" or deferring the projected return to surplus in 2020-21.
And underscoring the difficulties ahead for the government in budget negotiations, NXT party leader Nick Xenophon, who has one lower house MP and three senators, said he supported the retention of the deficit levy for high-income earners - directly contradicting government policy - and a possible rise in the Medicare levy.
As counting resumed on Saturday, the Coalition had 73 seats, Labor had 66 seats, there were five MPs on the crossbench and six seats remained too close to call.
Queensland will determine whether Mr Turnbull can form majority government, with four of the six too-close-to-call seats in the Sunshine State. Of those six seats, the Coalition leads the count in the Queensland seat of Forde, which would take the government's total to 74.
In the other three seats - Capricornia (175 votes), Herbert (352 votes) and Flynn (seven votes) - Labor led the Coalition by tiny margins, but the government again gained ground in these seats on Friday, and with thousands of postal and absentee ballots to count, it remained hopeful of winning all three and reaching 77 seats in its own right - an outcome ABC election analyst Antony Green said was possible.
However, Labor was confident of hanging on to its lead in the final two too-close-to-call seats, South Australia's Hindmarsh and Western Australia's Cowan, which would take the ALP to 68 MPs in the 45th Parliament.
Mr Turnbull said, after meeting Ms McGowan, that she would remain "thoroughly independent" but that she "recognises the importance of a stable Parliament and she can provide support, consistent with what she's done in the past, by supporting the government . . . on matters of supply and confidence".
"We are determined to bring people together to ensure the 45th Parliament is stable, productive and governing and legislating in the national interest."
Ms McGowan - whose electorate is largely conservative - said she would support confidence and supply and that it was her intention to "work with the government as an independent to make the government the best we can for the people of Australia".
She said she had not asked for anything specific in return other than goodwill and for regular contact with the Prime Minister.
Mr Shorten told the Labor caucus that "it's likely in coming days that the Liberals will scrape over the line" but "the combination of a PM with no authority, a government with no direction and a Liberal Party at war with itself will see Australians back at the polls within the year".
Government sources are already admitting that tax cuts for big business are looking less likely, though a cut to a 25 per cent tax rate for small and medium businesses with a turnover of $10 million or less could still be secured.
Standard and Poors' warning came as the Department of Industry forecast the iron ore price would fall to $US44, down from $US55 in the May budget, which could slash more than a billion dollars from revenue.
