In an interview with the Telegraph, Ms Vamvakinou, who retains the seat she has held since 2007, albeit with a swing of more than 2 per cent against her by the time the paper went to press, said it was a period of anxiety and uncertainty compared with the euphoria of 2007 when Labor had a clear victory.

The sooner the impasse was resolved the better, she said.

The last hung parliament was in 1940.

Labor and the Coalition are now likely to have 73 seats each, with Labor likely to lose between 13 and 16 seats.

Ms Vamvakinou agreed though the opinion polls had predicted such an outcome, the result was a nightmare realised for her party.

"We will be... analysing reasons... what's done and what's not done... [and it will be] time to analyse the swing in our backyard."

Asked to comment on defeated Bennelong MP Maxine McKew's criticism of Labor for sacking Kevin Rudd and running a "confused" election campaign, Ms Vamvakinou said she had not heard the entire speech. But she agreed "we didn't sell our economic [success] story [well enough]".

About whether the dumping of Mr Rudd as prime minister led to Labor's disastrous result, she said it was a hard question to answer, but one that could not be ignored.

However, she said Labor's "good government" message resonated in Victoria, a state where voters stood by the party and it held well.

She said the swing against her had come off a "high base" in 2007 when she had a swing of 11.2 per cent in her favour - double the national average.

Asked which party would ultimately govern, she said it was still "crystal ball-gazing", with potentially five independents and one Greens MP playing a role in deciding which party came to power.

On a two-party preferred basis, Ms Vamvakinou defeated Liberal Party's Wayne Tseng, 50,534 votes to 21,263 (at the time of going to print). Greens' candidate Lenka Thompson polled 8242, a swing of more than 7 per cent in her favour.