On the crossbench, the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team, Katter's Australian Party, and independents Wilkie and McGowan won a seat each.

For the first time since federation, a party managed to form government without winning a plurality of seats in the two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria.

[1] One re-count was held by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) for the Division of Herbert, confirming that Labor won the seat by 37 votes.

Announced on 4 August, the results revealed a reduced plurality of 30 seats for the Coalition, 26 for Labor, and a record 20 for crossbenchers including 9 Greens, 4 from One Nation and 3 from the Xenophon Team.

Former broadcaster and Justice Party founder Derryn Hinch won a seat, while Jacqui Lambie, Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm and Family First's Bob Day retained theirs.

As of 2023 this is the most recent federal election for the major parties to have new leaders when Shorten replaced Kevin Rudd after the 2013 Australian federal election, loss for the latter, as Labor leader after beating Anthony Albanese in the October 2013 Australian Labor Party leadership election a month later, and Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott as Liberal leader and prime minister on 14 September 2015 after a leadership challenge win in the September 2015 Liberal Party of Australia leadership spill ten months prior.

[25] On 21 March 2016, Turnbull announced that the parliament would be recalled for both houses to sit on 18 April to consider for a third time the bills to reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

[31] On 19 April the Prime Minister confirmed that, following the 2016 federal budget set for 3 May, he would advise the Governor-General to call a double dissolution election on Saturday 2 July.

On 11 February 2016 Warren Truss, the Deputy Prime Minister, announced his decision to retire from politics at the 2016 federal election and immediately stood aside as Leader of the Nationals.

[65] In the lower house seat of Brisbane, both the Liberal-National and Labor candidates were openly gay; a first in Australian federal political history.

Rudd resigned from Parliament on 22 November 2013, triggering the 2014 Griffith by-election, which was held on 8 February, with Terri Butler retaining the seat for Labor.

Andrew Hastie retained the seat for the Liberal Party, having to rely on preferences after suffering a substantial swing to the Labor candidate.

[68] Joe Hockey was not retained as Treasurer in the Turnbull Ministry, and announced his resignation from Parliament shortly afterwards, triggering the 2015 North Sydney by-election which was held on 5 December.

This was only the second time in North Sydney since federation that the successful Liberal candidate failed to obtain a majority of the primary vote and had to rely on preferences.

[77] Additionally, Paterson was made more compact and pushed well to the south, taking in some heavily Labor territory that had previously been in Hunter and Newcastle.

Antony Green, a psephologist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, wrote several publications on various aspects of the proposed Senate changes.

His calculation of the percentage of primary-vote required for the first six full- and half-quotas at this election is as follows:[91] In its pre-election editorial endorsements, the press overwhelmingly backed the Coalition over Labor—only the Sunday edition of the Melbourne Age plumped for the Opposition.

"[95] Though the Sunday Telegraph agreed his government had been "timid", it concluded "We are fortunate to have as Prime Minister a man of integrity, decency and undoubted intellect.

His "resort to crass populism and the outdated politics of class comes from a once-reforming centre-left party which has refused to free itself from ... trade union and factional control," the editorial ran.

"Mr Shorten's populist pitch echoes some of the global political phenomenon represented by Brexit and Donald Trump by exciting a squabble over shares of a declining income pie.

Though it rated the Coalition's economic plan as "adequate at best," The Australian contrasted this with "an unthinkable Labor alternative that, even after the overblown GFC stimulus of the Rudd–Gillard–Rudd years, would respond to current challenges by spending more, taxing more and taking the nation deeper into debt.

")[105] The Age endorsed the super changes and company tax cut, but was critical of the Coalition's "shamefully harsh" border protection policies and planned same-sex marriage plebiscite.

"[108] The Age welcomed its plans on negative gearing and capital gains tax; the Herald backed the case for Labor's higher increases in education funding.

Expecting a Coalition victory, the NT News argued that Solomon Country Liberal MP Natasha Griggs should be returned on the grounds that Darwin was better off having a Government member as its representative.

[110] Victoria's Herald Sun highlighted the Country Fire Authority dispute—"a window into the relationship between Labor and the union movement" and "a game changer in how many Victorians will vote.

[104] Campaign advertising began in February, with the Government airing taxpayer-funded commercials for its Innovation and Science Agenda that echoed Turnbull's catchphrase "exciting time".

[130] The first negative shots in the campaign's television advertising war were fired in April, as the Government worked to obtain its second trigger for a double dissolution.

[137][133] In Australian federal elections, a "blackout" of campaign ads on radio and television applies from midnight on the Wednesday before polling day.

On the eve of the blackout in 2016, commercial television stations, media analysts and some politicians called for this rule to be reviewed in the light of declining audience share for traditional broadcasters, and the growing role of the internet in campaigning.

He secured confidence and supply support from Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie and Cathy McGowan in the event of a hung parliament and resulting minority government,[185][186] as seen in 2010.