Bass Liberal MHR Andrew Nikolic says the comments are laughable, labelling minority government as “chaotic, costly and unstable”. 

The Liberals and Nationals are continuing a scare campaign about the consequences of a hung parliament, and ramped it up during the campaign launch on Sunday.

But Mr Wilkie said it was a disappointing approach, and the idea that a power sharing Parliament would be unstable was “deeply misleading”. 

“History shows that power sharing Parliaments can be very reformist and very stable,” Mr Wilkie said.

Mr Wilkie was one of the independent and Green MPs who allowed former prime minister Julia Gillard to form a minority government in 2010.

He said the former hung parliament was “very stable”.

“They can be hard work for the people involved in them,” he said.

“But look what we got from that hard work – we got stability for three years, we had reforms like a price being put on carbon, the creation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and for a time we even had the prospect of poker machine reform.

“Unrestrained power in Canberra is dangerous – we ended up with Work Choices when we had unrestrained power under John Howard.”

Mr Nikolic said now was not the time for Australians to risk their vote with minor party candidates.

“In uncertain times you need stable government to steer you safely through,” Mr Nikolic said.

“The choice is clear – a stable majority Liberal government or another Labor-Green-Independent-union controlled minority government.”

He said only a majority government could govern for the national interest and “not be pulled in multiple directions”.