The Australian 2016 federal election could be a hung parliament http://vtr.aec.gov.au/HouseDefault-20499.htm. If it is a hung parliament what steps are required to form government for one of the major parties.
1 Answer
There's no official process (i.e. codified within the constitution), however there are well established 'unwritten conventions' that were followed as recently as 2010/2011 (the last time this happened).
Basically, both parties will begin to bargain with the crossbenchers until they can reach the support of 76 seats (this being the majority needed to govern).
Should the LNP be able to reach that target, then Malcolm Turnbul would approach the governor-general and inform him that he intends to form government, be sworn in (along with the ministers) and then have to survive the inevitable motion for no-confidence moved by the Opposition (this is where the cross-bench support comes in).
If the LNP can't get the required support, the usual process is that PM would be forced to resign and the governor general call on the Opposition leader (if they managed to convince the others to come on board) to repeat the above process.
If neither can form government, and survive the no-confidence motion, then there's a pretty good chance the the Governor General won't have much choice and we all head back to the polls.
Although this article was from 2010, it's relevant as it's pretty much the exact same situation again, just with the roles reversed. And it was also the first hit on google...