The most troubling omen for the nation is not the result but the responses of the two main parties. Paul Keating said Turnbull was brilliant, fearless, but he lacked judgment, his fatal flaw. Credit:Janie Barrett Labor leader Bill Shorten is claiming that, regardless of the final outcome, the Coalition "have lost their mandate". He's acknowledging the possibility that Malcolm Turnbull could be returned as prime minister, yet he argues that he'd have no mandate. This is akin to when Julia Gillard formed a perfectly constitutional government after the 2010 election and leading Liberals, including Joe Hockey, declared it "illegitimate".

Under Shorten's logic, the Coalition could win most of the vote - as, so far, it has, with 50.07 per cent - win most of the seats, and still have no mandate. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Shorten is rejecting the rules and conventions based on nothing but rhetoric. Why? He's setting himself up to wage a furious obstructionism as Opposition Leader. It's also known as being a bad loser. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says the PM has no mandate. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen.

The election response of the Liberal Party is not much better. The Tony Abbott faction of the party is taking the result as its opportunity to open a civil war. The conservatives have been repressing their anger since the removal of Abbott. They are determined to destroy Turnbull, even if he's returned as prime minister. <> Cory Bernardi on Sunday said that the "very disappointing" result was "a product of the contempt shown by senior Liberals and so-called Liberal strategists for conservatives and the Liberal base. This has done enormous damage to the Liberal Party." He called for people to be "held to account".

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox The most irrational was the commentator Andrew Bolt, who said on election night that Turnbull was likely to be returned as prime minister and should resign immediately. Apparently the decision of the Australian electorate is a lesser matter than vendetta. At the same time, Labor was alive with gossip about an Anthony Albanese challenge to Shorten for the leadership. The Liberals and Labor alike are gripped by a feverish fratricide, even now. They seem to have learnt nothing. Australian voters gave a record share of the vote to the minor parties and independents on Saturday, including Derryn Hinch and Pauline Hanson. Because the people are disgusted with the big parties.

The reason the outcome is so close is that the people are equally revolted by both. Why? Because the people want their politicians to be problem-solvers. Instead, both parties have lost themselves in an all-consuming narcissism. Where the country wants problems solved, both major parties deliver only parlour games. And that's the reason that this election seems not to have fixed the dismal decade, but extended it. It's an entrenched problem of political culture in the main parties. It doesn't have to be this way.

The most likely scenario this week is that the Turnbull government will be returned with a slender majority. Bob Menzies won the 1961 election with a majority of one, led a stable government for two years and won re-election with an increased majority, as George Brandis pointed out on Saturday in an effort to settle his party. What about the fact that the government won't control the Senate? That's situation normal. Governments have had control of the Senate for only 15 of the past 67 years. No post-war Labor government has ever had control of the Senate. And if it is a hung parliament, there are constitutional ways of working that through too. A close election does not need to produce instability or chaos. The two main parties have missed the message from the people.

It's Labor and Liberal who seem intent on giving us instability and chaos, no matter the result.