Australia has a Labor government - 76 to 74.

7th September 2010

[naturalman1975]

The independents have made their decision. Julia Gillard remains Prime Minister in a Labor minority government.

[naturalman1975]

Labor - 72 + 1 Green + Independent Andrew Wilkie + Independent Rob Oakeshott + Independent Tony Windsor for 76.

Conservative coalition - 73 + Independent Bob Katter for 74.

[Tzimisce]

Graft, corruption and cheating: coming soon to an election near you.

[UncleHambone]

Missed it by that much.

That’s a pretty unstable government though, isn’t it?

[naturalman1975]

Yes - I doubt it will last a year.

[Pikachu_Dad]

(redacted)

[Southack]

Bet they try to forget ever proposing that mining tax...

[naturalman1975]

I’m just Tony Windsor explaining he’s supporting Labor because he thinks the coalition would win an election. This means a Labor government is less likely to call an election...

He’s just admitted he’s installed a government the Australian people don’t want.

[onyx]

UGH.

[John Valentine]

Well, that makes no sense whatsoever. I doubt that Tony Windsor will win in his district again.

[iowamark]

It shows how independent the “independents” are, doesn’t it?

[gary_b_UK]

They mentioned stability, but am I right in thinking that for the next 10 months or so, if the Coalition and one other Senator vote together, they can block legislation. Not very stable is it?

[naturalman1975]

Yes, basically.

And, no, it’s not very stable at all.

[Tolsti2]

We in the USA really want to spread individual freedom. We get angry when they fight it.

They don’t get it though. Gun rights and so on.

[fortheDeclaration]

It sounds like the conservatives could block most of the Labor agenda.

[naturalman1975]

They could - but there are conventions that make that unlikely.

Basically if a government ran specifically on a policy, the Senate will normally allow it through. What is going to be confusing in this case is if it’s a policy Labor ran on, but their Green or independent supporters didn’t - no convention says that should be passed.

[onyx]

Congratulations!

You were ahead of all the wirse services too!

The decision by Tony Windsor and Robb Oakeshott gives Gillard's party control of 76 seats in the 150-seat House or Representatives and avoids the need for another round of polls, following inconclusive elections late last month.

[Dragonspirit]

In world history, has the right wing candidate ever won such a type of situation?

Whenever an election is legitimately close, the left will steal it (find “mystery” ballots, multiple recounts, have judges play games, etc). Hell, they were almost able to steal Florida in 2000.

[eclecticEel]

Yeah, they tried to steal it in 2000, but failed.

It was only a couple years ago that Canadian leftists also failed in their bid to steal the government of the great friendly north.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Follow her on Twitter, she might screw it all up on there.