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30th August, 2010
SYDNEY: Australia’s political deadlock could end within days, two key independent lawmakers said Sunday, a week after polls left both Prime Minister Julia Gillard and challenger Tony Abbott unable to claim power.
With the final votes still being counted, Gillard, the first woman to lead the nation of 22 million, and Abbott are attempting to woo independent lawmakers crucial to gaining enough seats in parliament to form a government.
Two of these “kingmaking” independents – rural member of parliament Tony Windsor and former intelligence officer Andrew Wilkie – said Sunday they hoped to make their decision on who they would prefer to govern within days.
“We’re entering into a range of meetings this week. I would hope that by the end of the week we should be able to make a decision,” Windsor told Channel Ten.
Australians voted in the country’s first hung parliament in 70 years at the August 21 polls – delivering Abbott’s Liberal/National coalition 73 seats and Gillard’s centre-left Labor 72, but giving neither the 76 seats needed to rule.
Whoever forms government will have to rely on the support of the non-aligned MPs – Wilkie, Windsor and fellow rural independents Robb Oakeshott and Bob Katter, and the Greens lawmaker Adam Bandt.
Wilkie, a former army lieutenant colonel who publicly questioned the war on Iraq before the 2003 US-led invasion and who met with Gillard on Saturday, said he would make his decision “very soon”.
“I would hope to make my decision Tuesday or Wednesday – that’s what the people want,” he told Channel Nine, adding that it would be bad for Australia if the political impasse dragged on.
“I’m well aware that stability is very important. There is already a restlessness in the community that it’s over a week since the election and we’re still to know who is going to govern Australia for the next three years.”
The Labor government, which Gillard headed for just eight weeks before going to the polls, took a beating on election day, losing a swathe of seats won in 2007 by former leader Kevin Rudd, whom she ousted in a party room coup in June.
While Abbott – a former minister in the conservative administration of John Howard and a one-time trainee for the Catholic priesthood – delivered a surprising number of votes for his coalition after a disciplined campaign. But neither has a sweeping mandate to rule, prompting a cartoon in The Sydney Morning Herald to comment this week that while the people have spoken, they appeared to have only said: “Yeah, whatever.”
The poll has delivered a number of firsts, including the first Greens MP elected to the lower house at a general election and the nation’s first indigenous lawmaker to the House of Representatives.
Claiming the marginal West Australian seat of Hasluck for the Liberals on Sunday, Ken Wyatt refused to dwell on the racist hate mail he had received since the election from people who said they would not have voted for him if they knew of his Aboriginal heritage.
“I’ve had that all my life, growing up as an Aboriginal in the ‘60s, the ‘70s and the ‘80s,” he told reporters.
“Let’s move on from that – what’s more important is the way in which we move Australia forward and the thinking that we have and the society that we build on.”
As the lawmakers worked to resolve the deadlock, Windsor called for calm, adding it might not be possible to come to a resolution quickly.
“I think this is a time for cool heads,” he said. “A lot of people might not like the situation we are in. I didn’t put myself in this position but … I think we’ve got to try and make reasonable decisions based on information before us and hopefully come to some conclusion.”
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