Scott Morrison favoured to remain as Prime Minister

The Coalition is on track to win more seats than Labor with surprising swings to the government.

In a shock result which opinion polls and betting markets failed to predict, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal and National parties have recorded strong swings to them particularly in Queensland - enough to see a possible Coalition majority.

The knife-edge election now hangs on Western Australia, where polls have closed.

Veteran ABC election analyst Antony Green said a Coalition victory was now more likely, with a majority even possible, as Labor struggles to pick up enough seats even in Melbourne, in its strongest state Victoria.

'The government's on track to win more seats than Labor,' he said, shortly after 8pm.

Meanwhile, betting markets have turned with Sportsbet now putting the Coalition as election favourites at $1.65 to Labor's $2.20. 

The Coalition has not won a Newspoll since 2016 and Labor had won 55 consecutive Newspolls going into the election.

The Liberal Party, however, has been punished in Sydney's wealthiest electorates. 

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has become the first major casualty lost of an increasingly uncertain election where the Coalition is now ahead, losing his blue-ribbon seat of Warringah after 25 years in Parliament.

Election experts are calling the electorate on Sydney's wealthy northern beaches for his independent challenger Zali Steggall, a Winter Olympic skiing medalist.

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Steggall had an impressive 49.2 per cent of first-preference votes compared to just 35.4 per cent for Mr Abbott, in early counting, representing a mammoth 11.4 per cent swing against the Liberal Party.  

Conceding defeat, Mr Abbott said: 'I'd rather be a loser than a quitter.'

He also declared Mr Morrison, who replaced Mr Turnbull as PM in August, would be a Liberal Party legend.

'Scott Morrison will rightly enter the Liberal pantheon forever,' he said. 

is enough to end the culturally-conservative warrior's 25-year political career representing Sydney's socially-liberal northern beaches. 

Across Sydney Harbour, independent Kerryn Phelps has recorded a massive 34 per cent swing to her on primary votes, with her Liberal challenger Dave Sharma hit with a 15.4 per cent swing against him in former PM Malcolm Turnbull's old seat.  

Labor's shadow immigration minister Shayne Neumann has surprisingly losing his safe seat of Blair, centred around Ipswich, with a swing of 13.7 per cent against it.

In Queensland, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has survived and recorded a 3.8 per cent to him in his marginal northern Brisbane seat of Dickson, despite earlier controversy earlier in the campaign where he questioned the living arrangements of his Labor opponent Ali France, who lost a leg in 2011.

The Sunshine State is looking bad for Labor, with the ABC predicting it will lose the outer-northern Brisbane seat of Longman and the Townsville-based seat of Herbert, with swings of five per cent against it.

The Liberal National Party is also recording strong swings to it in its marginal seats of Capricornia, Dawson, Petrie and Forde. 

Senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong acknowledged the areas of Australia north of the Tweed were historically hard for her party to maintain support.

'Queensland's tough for us,' she told the ABC. 

NSW Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos said Prime Minister Scott Morrison was 'straight forward' and popular in the outer suburbs of Brisbane.

'A personifies a certain daggyness people aspire to,' he told the ABC.

Senator Sinodinos said the anti-Adani protests led by a former Greens leader - 'Bob Brown's caravan' - had also hurt Labor in north Queensland.

Tasmania is also punishing the Opposition, with the regional seats of Bass and Braddon going to the Liberal Party with swings of six per cent. 

Labor is also suffering double-digit swings against it in in western Sydney, where it looks likely to lose the seat of Lindsay and possibly neighbouring Macquarie. 

This is in stark contrast to an early Nine Network/Galaxy exit poll which showed Bill Shorten would be Australia's next prime minister, with the Opposition ahead of the Coalition 52 to 48 per cent on a two-party preferred basis nationwide.

The poll surveyed 33 electorates across six states and found a swing to the ALP in every state, ranging from 1.1 per cent in Queensland, 3.2 per cent in Victoria and 2.5 per cent in New South Wales.  

A tight election result had been widely expected, worrying Labor and Coalition strategists with polls now closed in all parts of the nation except Western Australia.

The Coalition's primary vote has sunk by three per cent, to 39 per cent, since the 2016 election, which former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull narrowly won.

Labor's first-preference vote has surged by the same margin to 38 per cent, giving it the edge with preferences from the Greens, who had 10 per cent support.

The major parties will need 76 seats to win a parliamentary majority in an expanded 151-seat House of Representatives with early counting showing uneven swings in key marginal seats.

The Nine exit poll of 3000 voters found that health and Medicare were the main issues that influenced their voting, followed by cost of living and climate change.

The Labor Opposition goes into the election notionally holding 72 seats, following redistributions, compared with 73 for the Coalition.

The projected swing would see the Coalition potentially lose 11 seats, including four in NSW and Victoria and three in Queensland.

However, early counting also showed the Labor Party losing the western Sydney seat of Lindsay, with an 11.5 per cent swing against it, and the Tasmanian seats of Bass and Braddon, with swings of five per cent in both electorates.

Immigration Minister David Coleman would potentially be in danger in his seat of Banks, in Sydney's south-west, with the 2.5 per cent swing in NSW enough to wipe out his 1.5 per cent margin. 

The Liberal Party would also lose the Central Coast seat of Robertston, north of Sydney, and the South Coast electorate of Gilmore, where it is running former Labor national president Warren Mundine.  

His Queensland Liberal National Party could lose Forde, in Brisbane's south, along with Capricornia, centred around Rockhampton, and Flynn, which takes in Gladstone.

The exit poll came as Scott Morrison refused to say whether he will carry on as Liberal Leader should he lose the election. 

The Prime Minister addressed the media after kissing his wife Jenny as they cast their ballots in his electorate of Cook, in southern Sydney.

Unlike his confident opponent Mr Shorten this morning, Mr Morrison shied away from predicting the result.

'I make no assumptions about tonight,' the Prime Minister said.

He then refused to comment on whether he would continue as Liberal leader as he stares down the barrel of defeat after serving just nine months as PM.

'As I have said when this question has been put to me before, this election is not about my future. It is about your future. It is about the people of Australia's future,' Mr Morrison said. 

'It is about their aspirations, their ambitions. It is not about my aspirations or Bill Shorten's ambition, it is about the Australian people's aspiration and that is what I have focused on.'

Revealing that he voted for himself, he joked: 'I think you can guess how I voted today because I hear the local member is pretty good.' 

Mr Morrison thanked supporters and said he would not like to predict the result, adding: 'I make no assumptions about tonight. 

'I respect this process. It

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