Australian prime minister Julia Gillard came within grasp of a return to power today after one of four "kingmaker" MPs backed her Labor Party's bid to form a minority government.
Labor has promised to introduce a new tax on mining profits and a $38 billion broadband project if it wins a second term over the opposition conservatives, as well as a price on carbon to curb one of the world's highest per-capita levels of emissions.
Independent Andrew Wilkie's decision to back Ms Gillard means Labor can now claim 74 seats in the 150-member lower house of parliament, still two short of the number needed to rule.
The conservatives now have 73 seats, but could still win the race to form a government if the three remaining rural-based independents line up behind its leader, Tony Abbott. Their decisions may not come until early next week.
"I have judged that it is in fact (Labor) that best meets my criteria that the next government must be stable, must be competent and must be ethical," Mr Wilkie told reporters at parliament in Canberra.
Labor, he said, would have his support only on legislative votes affecting budget supply and defeating no-confidence motions launched by the conservatives in the fractured parliament.
Bookmakers immediately reversed their odds on Ms Gillard forming a government, with the conservatives sliding behind for the first time since the inconclusive August 21st vote delivered the country's first hung parliament since 1943.
Mr Wilkie had demanded curbs to limit the amount people can lose on gaming machines.
Ms Gillard agreed to look at putting smart-card technologies to monitor slot machines use in pubs and casinos in a nation where $9.3 billion was gambled away in the year to June 2009, he said.
"These are ways of individual gamblers being recognised by the machines and by the network of the machines, which is a very effective way ... to rein in problem gambling," Mr Wilkie said.
The government also agreed to release extra money for public health and hospitals.
Mr Wilkie said he also wanted Australia's richest companies to pay more tax on their profits, although Ms Gillard's planned 30 per cent profits-based tax on coal and iron ore companies needed tweaking before it would get his support.
Reuters