Deakin University lecturer and co-author of Australian Politics for Dummies, Zareh Ghazarian, decodes what the historic minority government will mean for Australia.
This is a momentous occasion in Australian history, isn't it?
A hung parliament and minority government is something we haven't seen since 1941, so it is a momentous occasion. Australians have been accustomed to seeing one of the major parties form government. The way the independents deliberated with the major parties over the weeks really built up tension and you could almost feel the tension today when they were holding a press conference to announce their decisions. We really have experienced something that is almost a once in a generation occurrence in Australia, so the 2010 election was certainly momentous.
What are the implications of the independents' decision?
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Firstly, the leader of the party the independents decided to support was always going to be very fortunate and the leader of the party that missed out was going to be very unlucky. In this instance Julia Gillard can be seen to be very lucky. Even after losing 16 seats, and a majority, she was able to gain the support of the independents. No doubt there will be debate about who these independents should have supported and whether, in fact, Labor has a mandate to govern.
Either way, the 2010 election highlighted how Australia's political system still ultimately places power in individual MPs. Had these independents decided otherwise, we may have had a Coalition government or we'd be going back to the polls.
Minority governments are notoriously unstable at the best of times - how solid is the agreement reached today?
Throughout the negotiations the independents sought to ensure a stable government. What we have now is a somewhat brittle arrangement. Labor must continue to have the support of the independent MPs including Mr Wilkie, Mr Bandt, Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor.
The undertaking of Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor to support Labor comes with a very important caveat; they reserve their right to vote against the government which may effectively cause it to fall. This can be seen to be an important safety feature in the independent's approach to supporting Labor - if they feel that the government is just not performing as it should, then they may bring it down.
What are some fo the key issues that led to this decision by the independents?
One of the big issues was broadband. Traditionally, rural and regional areas in Australia appear to have been disadvantaged in terms of access to important infrastructure. Now, with the high-speed broadband, these areas have the chance to have parity with metropolitan Australia and won't be left behind.
Indeed, government services to rural and regional Australia also seem to have been a big issue for these independents representing these seats. Both parties sought to address issues concerning rural Australia, but it appears that Labor's commitment to invest close to $10 billion in regional areas was more appealing to Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott. The investments outlined by the government were to be made on key areas such as health, hospitals and transport.
Another important issue was that of parliamentary reform. In the new parliament there will be time limits on asking, and answering, questions. In essence this means that the government may no longer dominate Question Time. The practice of asking 'Dorothy Dixer' questions, where government MPs ask scripted questions to their own ministers who then give long winded answers advertising the government's achievements while criticising the Opposition, seems to be mitigated by these new guidelines.
Furthermore, the parliamentary reforms seem to be designed to place greater emphasis on each MP as an individual, especially in terms of representing issues that are important to their electorate. This is a change from the past, where the parties appeared to be the dominant organs in parliament.
What issues do you think will test this loose coalition?
Two of the independents who support Labor, Mr Wilkie and Mr Bandt represent metropolitan seats while the other two independents represent rural and regional seats, so there is always going to be some tension in trying to reconcile the policy demands of these MPs.
History suggests that there is significant differences between the policy issues that dominate metropolitan debates and those that dominate rural and regional areas. Furthermore, the government will have to maintain its commitment to parliamentary reform to keep Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott on side. This will be a government that will have to walk on egg-shells in its approach to policy making.
It's expected that compromise and consensus will be the hallmarks of the new government. But it's always good to know that in Australia's democratic system, if the government can't function, a new government is just an election away. And, with Australian electoral history and this recent experience of a hung parliament, it's unlikely that an election in the next few years would result in another hung parliament.
