Deadline looms for last postal votes

The final deadline for arrival of postal and declaration votes is 6pm Friday and any votes not in the hands of electoral officials by then won't be counted.

The Australian Electoral Commission allows 13 days after election day for postal and absentee votes to reach electorate offices, even those coming from overseas.

With no more votes arriving, final counting will be able to proceed. The complex job of counting the Senate votes is expected to continue for a number of weeks before a final result is known.

Just one electorate remains to be decided - Herbert in north Queensland.

That was classed as a Labor gain on election night but since then, sitting LNP MP Ewen Jones has relentlessly gained ground, mostly from postal votes.

He overtook Labor's Cathy O'Toole on Wednesday and his lead now stands at 58 votes, about half what it was a day ago.

Coalition figures are optimistic Herbert will remain in the fold and give the government 77 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

That's one more than a bare majority and would allow the government to pick a House of Representatives speaker from their own ranks.