1996 revisited

Does anyone remember New Zealand's first MMP election in 1996? That's right; the one where Winston Peters held Jim Bolger, Helen Clark and ultimately New Zealand to ransom for weeks after the election. We still remember it well, and perhaps the most bizarre aspect of it all was Winston Peters' minders doing daily sweeps for listening devices, and his refusal to hold meetings near windows lest the off chance that someone from the other side would be covertly recording proceedings. Some things never change!

Now the same sort of farce is going on across the ditch. There's next to nothing between Labour and the Coalition as the vote-counting draws to a close, and it will still be the independant MP's who decide who governs, or whether Australians go back to the polls - The Age reports:

JULIA Gillard has failed in an initial bid to win the backing of key Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie, as negotiations intensify over who will form the next Australian government.

Hours after Ms Gillard yesterday pitched a parliamentary reform agenda aimed at securing the support of non-aligned MPs, Mr Wilkie said Labor's written response to a list of issues he had raised was unacceptable.

And The Age also suggests that things may become clearer by Friday:

Mr Wilkie, the former intelligence analyst and Iraq war whistleblower who won the Hobart seat of Denison from Labor at last month's election, on Monday released a list of 20 priorities to be addressed by both major parties, led by bet and loss limits on poker machines and rebuilding Royal Hobart Hospital.

After rejecting Labor's offer, he said he would probably return to Canberra for more talks. He said it was important to resolve uncertainty over who will govern as soon as possible.

''Going into next week would be unreasonable for the community,'' Mr Wilkie said. ''The community, the financial markets want to finalise this and get back to business as normal.''

In Canberra, country independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott yesterday met British climate expert Nicholas Stern and Professor Ross Garnaut, who conducted an inquiry on climate change for the Rudd government.

With regional communications among their key concerns, the pair and the third country independent, Bob Katter, also met Mike Quigley, the head of the government broadband company, NBN Co. Last night they were meeting heads of government departments.

We maintain our previous position; Julia Gillard has lost the moral authority to form a government. Labor trails the coalition in terms of seats won, the popular vote, and now, as DPF reports, the two-party preferred vote as well - albeit very narrowly. She has not been able to cobble together a government, and we reckon that the time is fast approaching when she will have to concede that she cannot do that.