Return to power within grasp for Australia's Gillard
Thursday 02 September 2010
Latest in Australasia
On Facebook
From the blogs
More than half of Afghanistan’s families live in extreme poverty
Leila is watching her baby intently, as his mouth moves trying to swallow the small blob of yellow p...
Time for a new approach to alcohol
Ambulances were called and three drunk teenagers were brought to my care. One was so drunk we had to...
Bahrain: One year on
I am used to endless lies and criticism from the BNP and its favourite blogster, as well as Islamist...
Paul Volcker stands tall against the banking lobby
Why is Europe, which likes to present itself as an opponent of speculative "Anglo-Saxon" finance, li...
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 following last month's dead-heat elections.
Labor has promised to introduce a new tax on mining profits and a $38 billion (£22bn) 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 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," 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 Gillard forming a government, with the conservatives sliding behind for the first time since the inconclusive August 21 vote delivered the country's first hung parliament since World War Two.
Wilkie had demanded curbs to limit the amount people can lose on gaming machines. A gambling crackdown would affect stocks like Tabcorp Holdings, Tatts, Crown and Aristocrat Leisure.
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 (£5.4bn) 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," Wilkie said.
The government also agreed to release extra money for public health and hospitals.
Wilkie said he also wanted Australia's richest companies to pay more tax on their profits, although Gillard's planned 30 percent profits-based tax on coal and iron ore companies needed tweaking before it would get his support. Labor's proposed tax would hit miners Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Xstrata.
"The concept I'm not at odds with. But I think the current version has many faults, and I'm not comfortable with the way it was negotiated with only three miners," he said.
The conservatives also came under pressure on Thursday to explain a $9.6 billion (£5.6bn) hole in their election manifesto costings, putting at risk talks with the undecided independents.
One of the "kingmakers", Tony Windsor, said that while the error was not a deal breaker, Abbott's pre-election refusal to have the costings verified by Treasury department officials had fostered suspicion his coalition had something to hide.
"What we're after - well, I'm after - is a judgment on two different teams that want to be the government. So one of those things that we have to establish is trust in what they're actually saying," Windsor told Australian television.
So far financial markets have not been ruffled by the political uncertainty. Investors are more focused on the risk that economic weakness in the United States and Japan could spill into Australia, undermining its relatively robust growth.
Nevertheless, the Australian economy remains in rude health. Data released on Wednesday showed that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 3.3 per cent in the second quarter from the same period in 2009.
- 1 No secularism please, we're British
- 2 Apple admits it has a human rights problem
- 3 'Drunk tanks' and minimum prices to help Britain sober up
- 4 Working as a jail torturer ruined my life
- 5 Lightning kills an entire football team
- 6 Reinstate Knox's murder charge, Italian court told
- 7 Caught in his own blast: an Iranian targeting Israel
- 1 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 2 How Koscielny became prince of the Emirates
- 3 Apple admits it has a human rights problem
- 4 Mark Steel: If religion is 'marginal', I'm the Pope
- 5 No secularism please, we're British
- 6 Lightning kills an entire football team
- 7 Matthew Norman: There's always the Human Rights Act, Trevor
- 8 Special report: The hungry generation
- 9 I was born to be a killer. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams
- 10 Six Grammys, five years off: Adele puts love before career
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a three-week coastal jaunt
Spend three weeks exploring every nook and cranny of gorgeous Atlantic Canada.
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
How an abortion divided America
Did they all live happily ever after? That's up to you...




Comments