Despite losing 18,819 primary votes to Labor’s Christian Emmery and 8,342 to first time Independent Louise Burge, she was re-elected with primary votes of 35,819 and 44,896 two candidate preferred.

Ms Ley was humbled by the strong result. “The increased vote reflects people’s faith in me and I promise to work even harder to achieve outcomes for our rural communities,” she said.

On Monday afternoon Ms Ley said, “the national result is still too close to call and hopefully Tony Abbott can lead a minority government.”

While on the campaign trail Ms Ley said she had a list of action items to take back to Canberra - the bypasses of Holbrook and Woomargama, the need for continued support of Landcare and a strong agricultural policy.

Her nearest opponent, Country Labor candidate Christian Emmery lost ground with 25,179 two candidate preferred votes, down by 2.88 percent and a 6.99 percent swing away, in the first preferences.

Australians showed their discontent with the two major parties by refusing to give a clear majority for them to govern in the federal elections at the weekend.

On Monday a cliff hanger was evident. An expectation of 73 seats and Australia faced the prospect of a hung federal parliament. Labor’s caretaker Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were scrambling to gain the support of three Independents and a Green to claim a minority led government.

Christian Emmery believed “both parties ran negative campaigns and the presidential style of the campaign was just “not successful in a Westminster democracy”.

Attracting support from both Labor and Coalition supporters, Independent candidate Louise Burge said, “this signifies the policies of both parties are not reflecting the needs of the people”.

Ms Burge has assured her supporters she will continue to campaign for better policies for regional Australia.

“It is an exciting opportunity now with three independents - who could determine Australia’s new Federal Government - to get Regional Australia back on the radar of major political parties,” Ms Burge said.

In the seat of Riverina, the Nationals Michael McCormack claimed a strong victory, securing a 3.3 percent swing towards him on the two candidate preferred basis.