Julia Gillard will remain as Australia's first female prime minister after two Independent MPs agreed to support a minority Labor Party government.
"Labor is prepared to govern," Ms Gillard (48) told reporters in Canberra today after Robert Oakeshott and Tony Windsor pledged their support in return for AUS$9.9 billion of investment in rural districts like the ones they represent.
Ms Gillard said she found out which way the two Independents intended to vote the same way almost everyone else did - by watching their live press conference.
“Ours will be a government with just one purpose, and that’s to serve the Australian people,” she said. “We will be held to higher standards of transparency and reform and it’s in that spirit I approach the task of forming a government.”
Labor won 72 seats in the election on August 21st, four short of a majority in the 150-seat parliament.
Last week Adam Bandt, the sole lower house Green Party MP, and Andrew Wilkie, a left-leaning Independent, announced they were backing Labor. This left Labor with 74 votes and the Liberal-National coalition on 73.
The remaining three Independents, who are all conservative former members of the National Party, took more than two weeks to decide which side they would back.
In the meantime, they sought concessions from both sides to reform parliament with a revamped question time, an independent speaker and increased powers for committees.
The “gang of three” had indicated they would vote as a bloc and a press conference was set for yesterday afternoon to announce their decision. But one of their numbers, Bob Katter, broke ranks an hour beforehand to say he was backing the coalition.
Mr Windsor then told the media at the press conference he was backing Labor. He handed over to Mr Oakeshott, who ramped up the suspense with a long speech on why he was making his decision, before finally announcing who he would back.
Mr Oakeshott, who, along with the two other MPs, represents a rural constituency, said there would have to be major changes to how Australia is ruled. “This is not a mandate for any government. This parliament is going to be different,” he said. “This is going to be a cracking parliament. It’s going to be beautiful in its ugliness.”
Mr Windsor said Labor’s plans for a high speed internet broadband network and its position on climate change were factors in his decision. He also said a Labor government would be more secure as he felt if he supported the coalition, it would soon call another election.
Ms Gillard thanked Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott for the “common courtesy” of phoning her after it was clear Labor had the votes it needed to form government.
She said it would be another week before she announces the makeup of the new cabinet, but that there would be a senior portfolio for former prime minister Kevin Rudd, whom she successfully challenged for leadership of the Labor Party in June.
It is likely Mr Rudd will become the next foreign affairs minister.