By Radio New Zealand political editor Brent Edwards in Melbourne
Labor Party supporters at Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's election night party at the Melbourne Convention Centre could not quite believe it.
How could a government, which had shepherded Australia through the global financial crisis without going into recession, do so badly on election night?
This was not a party, but it was not quite a wake either. Labor had not won, but it had not quite lost.
While the final result will have to wait for the postal votes to be counted, Australia has ended up with a hung parliament.
It looks like the Coalition will win 73 seats, Labour 72, the Green Party one and independents four.
It is an historic result, but already Labor is asking questions about its strategy and its campaign.
Was it a monumental blunder to oust Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister and replace him with Ms Gillard just two months ago?
Rudd factor?
At Ms Gillard's electorate function, her supporters remained staunchly loyal. But some acknowledged the party's losses in Queensland, Mr Rudd's home state, could have been linked to his overthrow.
Maxine McKew, the former journalist who toppled the then Prime Minister John Howard in Bennelong in 2007, openly criticised Labor's campaign.
Ms McKew lost her seat after just one term and said Labor's campaign simply had not been as disciplined and as well organised as three years ago.
She had remained a supporter of Mr Rudd and her comments were a veiled criticism of Julia Gillard. But she blamed two other key factors for undermining Labor's electoral support.
Ms McKew said Labor lost support after it abandoned its promise to adopt an emissions trading scheme.
It also failed to convince voters that its $A40 billion stimulus package played a large part in Australia avoiding recession and in saving jobs that would have otherwise been lost.
Both failings were Mr Rudd's responsibility.
Anger at result
Ms Gillard's supporters were angry and upset on Saturday night that Australian voters had not rewarded the Government for its stewardship of the economy during the global economic crisis.
"Don't they get it?" one asked. From Labor's perspective they did not.
Instead, Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott's repeated attacks on the stimulus package as simply wasteful spending held at least as much sway with voters as Ms Gillard's argument that it had saved jobs.
Ms Gillard, though, was dogged by one problem throughout the campaign. She could not run too strongly on Labor's record in office.
She had, after all, deposed Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister because the Government had lost its way. If everything had been so rosy how then could she justify his ousting?
And by telling voters Labor had lost its way, she gave them reason to question why they should continue to support the Government.
This had been Labor's election to lose. Just six months ago it was the dominant political force in Australia and the Coalition was in disarray.
But its political management this year has been deeply flawed and it has also been badly hurt by voters' resentment of deeply unpopular Labor State governments in Queensland and New South Wales.
It is the loss of seats in those two states which has thwarted Labor's ambition of winning a majority to govern for a second term.
Remarkable turnaround
For the Coalition this has been a remarkable turnaround. Tony Abbott is the third leader of the Coalition's main party, the Liberals, since John Howard lost in 2007.
Under any political rule book the Coalition should have had no show of winning.
But Mr Abbott ran a simple campaign during which he repeated a simple message. He would stop the waste, stop the big new taxes, pay back debt and stop the boats.
It was hardly inspiring but it was enough to seize on the fears of Australians and on their disappointment with the Labor Government.
Yet despite the Coalition's dramatic revival it still has not won this election.
For a Government to be formed, either the Coalition or Labor will have to do deals with the independent MPs and Green MP Adam Bandt.
And once those deals have been done in the lower house of Parliament, the new minority government will still have to deal with the Greens holding the balance of power in the upper house, the Senate.
Historic election for Greens
For the Greens this is an historic election. Mr Bandt is the first Green to be elected to the lower house.
They hope he will pave the way for more Green MPs, in much the same way their leader Bob Brown has done in the Senate after he was voted in as the first Green Senator 14 years ago.
But the Coalition and Labor still face the challenge of trying to form a government. Ms Gillard has incumbency on her side.
Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott has a one seat advantage over Labor on his side, if postal votes do not cause any change to the final result.
Both are adamant they can lead the next government.
Another election?
The problem for Australia is that its last experience of a hung parliament goes back nearly 70 years to 1941. Its politicians have no experience of the deal making needed to make a minority government, or coalition government, work.
Throughout this campaign the betting agencies have been taking bets on the result. For months, Labor was the favourite but in the last few days the odds on the Coalition shortened.
What are the odds now - whichever party finally forms the Government - on Australia going back to the polls early?