A KEY player in negotiations for a minority government says another election is on the cards if a deal isn't struck with the crossbench.
The horse trading has begun in earnest for a minority government in Australia's first hung parliament in 70 years.
Neither Labor nor the coalition has won the 76 lower house seats required to form a government in its own right.
Most analysts believe one of the two will finish the vote count with 73 seats, the other with 72.
Rob Oakeshott, one of the three independent MPs re-elected in Saturday's election, says he and his colleagues want to reach an agreement that guarantees stable government.
"If we can't get that, let's go back to the ballot box,'' he told ABC Television today.
Mr Oakeshott said he and his two independent colleagues, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter, would hold preliminary discussions with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott later today and tomorrow.
Negotiations might not be finalised before the end of the next week, he warned.
It might also take that long for the Australian Electoral Commission to determine a final result, as it waits for postal and absentee votes to arrive at counting centres.
Following further counting on Sunday, the Liberals appear to have held Boothby (SA) while Labor looks set to win Lindsay (NSW) and Corangamite (Vic).
That leaves Brisbane (Qld), Hasluck (Tas) and Denison (Tas) as the only seats in doubt.
Labor frontbencher Stephen Conroy said the ALP remained hopeful it could still win Denison.
The seat is expected to go to independent candidate Andrew Wilkie, a prediction Senator Conroy thinks is "a little premature''.
"We think that we're still a real chance in Denison,'' he told ABC Radio.
A clearer picture of the outcome might be known later today when the AEC does a preference count.
Mr Wilkie needs to pick up a large slice of Greens and Liberal preferences to overtake Labor.
If Labor holds Denison and wins the closer-run race in Hasluck (WA) it would have 74 seats in the new parliament, three more than the coalition.
"That puts us very much in play to form a minority government,'' Senator Conroy said.
If Mr Wilkie wins Denison, and the Liberals take Brisbane and Hasluck the coalition will finish with 73 seats - one ahead of Labor.
But that number includes newly-elected Nationals MP Tony Crook, who took O'Connor from veterans Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey on Saturday.
Mr Crook previously has said he would sit on the crossbench rather than with other Nationals from other states.
