Independent MP Tony Windsor says a decision on which party will form government is unlikely to be made today.

Mr Windsor and his fellow independents Bob Katter and Rob Oakeshott have spent the weekend mulling over which party to support, and will hold talks together in Canberra today.

Mr Windsor says they also plan to meet Labor leader Julia Gillard and Coalition leader Tony Abbott one more time before making a final decision.

"My guess is, on the basis of all that, we'll make a determination probably tomorrow morning," Mr Windsor said.

Although keen not to raise expectations, he has not totally ruled out a decision today.

"Anything could happen," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/06/3003231.htm

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Gus: Tony Windsor would have to know that backing Labor is the best thing to do for Australia, at this point in time. But he has to consider his own skin: — if he goes with Labor, his electorate might show a backlash against him despite getting the best deal for his electorate. If he goes with the Libs, his re-election prospects are close to nil, in three years time — unless he betrays his independent aspirations and goes back to the fold. The perception in the riding boots and RM Williams shirt camp may be a win, but in fact it would be a loss — or Pyrrhic win... The best reasureer at the moment is Wayne Swan. Despite Joe Hockey being a "good bloke" — in the department of finance, he's chalk to Wayne's cheese... And from there on, the list of people in the Libs' front-bench is a sad sarcastic fear-mongering self-agrandizing lying lot — the same rotten crew we rejected before for lying, for taking us into an illegal war and for general ineptitude despite spruiking hard to turn their shafting of the Australian people in glorified legends. Horrifying nightmares.

All the decent economists in countries around the world are super-envious of the smart way the Swan team managed to steer the Australian economy above water, despite having encoutered like them the worst world wide financial crisis since the great depression. Sure, there were a few hiccups, but these were peanuts compared to the successes. Tony Abbott has no right in poopooing the job Labor did in these still unsettled times.

I will place this item here to show how political games of minute importance may influence the future of this planet.THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND. THIS IS A REALITY THAT WE ARE FACING:

Climate change, over-fishing and other human impacts have pushed the oceans to the brink of a mass extinction that could take tens of millions of years to recover from, an Australian scientist says.

Dr John Alroy from Macquarie University in Sydney has used the fossil record of the ocean, dating back more than 500 million years, to study how major changes in marine animal groups take place.

His work is published today in the journal Science.

In the course of the past 540 million years, marine animals have undergone several mass extinctions that saw dominant life forms suddenly replaced by others, he says.

For example, about 250 million years ago, species of animals known as lamp shells, which had dominated sea-beds, were suddenly replaced by clams and snails.

"The lamp shells were all over the place and diverse for a quarter of a billion years, then the biggest mass extinction in the history of life on earth happened - the Permian-Triassic extinction - and they went from being all over the place, to being rare and not very diverse."

Until recently, scientists had thought these extinction events were governed by the slow unwinding of predictable evolutionary "rules" that operated over hundreds of millions of years, says Alroy.

"What my paper shows is that that story is fundamentally wrong, in that it doesn't take into account the way a big evolutionary innovation or mass extinction can overturn the rules."

"The change in the balance of groups is not random. It's not that some groups have good luck and some have bad luck. There has actually been a resetting of the rules of evolution."

Human activities such as over-fishing, the acidification of the oceans and the introduction of imported species are threatening to trigger another such event, Alroy warns.

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Note: in the comment above this one I made a spelling mistake (I'll blame the keyboard) I said "reasureer" when of course I mean "Treasurer" — and I truly mean that, at this point in time, Wayne Swan is the best treasurer for Australia.

Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott have broken Australia's political deadlock by agreeing to back Julia Gillard in a Labor minority government.

After more than a fortnight of suspense, Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor today revealed their intention to give Labor their crucial votes, meaning it has secured the 76 seats needed to rule.

Their decision came hot on the heels of Bob Katter, who earlier confirmed he would back the Coalition, putting it on 74 votes.

Mr Oakeshott's and Mr Windsor's decision to swing behind Labor is a bitter blow for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who came closer than anyone expected to winning the election. In recent days he pleaded with the country trio not to forget their conservative roots.

Having spent just three weeks in the job before she called the election, Ms Gillard has narrowly avoided becoming one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in Australian history and instead will lead Labor to govern in the country's 43rd Parliament.

When it sits, the new Parliament will be subjected a major overhaul, as brokered by the independents.

Question Time will be revamped, an independent speaker will be installed and there will be new powers for committees.

Today's decision comes 17 days after the federal election resulted in the loss of a swag of Labor seats in Queensland and New South Wales and left both major parties short of a majority for the first time since World War II.

Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor join newly elected independent MP Andrew Wilkie and Greens MP Adam Bandt in pledging their support for a Labor minority government.

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I am writing about a pair of fools (or foxes) who were elected to Federal Parliament in what appears to be perfect examples of breaching the Constitution.

These two failed to resign their positions on local councils (Crown employees) - Mr. Russell Matheson the new Liberal member for Macarthur (who says he will stay on the council and serve in another Crown position as a member of Federal Parliament.  Struth.

It also includes, the George Christensen the new CLP member for Dawson who only quit his Crown job AFTER he was elected.  Fair dinkum.

To the best of my knowledge, there is currently a High Court case pending regarding the validity of these two, considering that they had breached the Constitution and therefore their "election" should be null and void.

Since it appears that their defence will likely be that Councils and States do not come under the Crown which they claim, means that they have not technically breached any electoral or constitution law?

IMHO, as an example supporting my argument that these people have indeed breached the rules whether by arrogance or stupidity and should be disenfranchised I quote the following:

THE ROLE OF THE CROWN IN AUSTRALIA'S CONSTITUTION

Preamble. "Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established."

While it may not be well known or understood, the centerpiece of the Australian Constitution is the Crown. Consider for a moment the frequency of references to the crown and monarchy in the Constitution: the word "Queen" is mentioned thirty-nine times, the words "Her Majesty" eleven times, and the words "the Crown" four times. All this terminology can be safely wrapped into one phrase, "the Crown," since the constitutional emphasis is on the principle of the Crown, not the actual person who wears it. Abbott says that the Australian Founding Fathers were not enamored with the human personality of the Queen, because the charismatic personal Crown of the Middle Ages had long given way to the dignified Crown recognized by Bagehot as the embodiment of people and state (ABBOTT 1997:9).

It is the Crown that stands as the common denominator of the six states in the Australian federation. As the quintessence of the people, the nation, and all aspects of government, the Crown also represents continuity, civilization, culture, and even Judeo-Christianity (note the reference to "Almighty God" in the preamble or study the coronation ceremony and oath). The Crown is above politics and unlike politicians, who represent their party, constituency, or special interest group, the Crown is empowered and duty-bound to represent everyone. As such, it is uniquely qualified to symbolize the unity of the states, the people, and the nation as a whole, something that politicians are rarely able to do.

COMMENT:  I believe that the case against these people is sound and should be decided as soon as possible.  The inconvenience of those two electorates being asked to vote again is miniscule considering the hung parliament situation in which we find ourselves.  Should these Liberals survive another by-election then they have lost nothing.  Conversely, if their electorates change their votes it may just, give at least one major party absolute majority of government in its own right.

Personally I am more afraid of the Greens power because, even though they have walked both sides of the road in this bitter election, they are still the party of no compromise.  Bob Brown has already overstepped his power by playing one against the other.  That would be more chaos than even the Coalition intends going by their "ferocisous" intentions.

Whatever happens, let's make sure that the Murdoch empire doesn't succeed in Australia as it did in England.  NE OUBLIE. 

The disgruntled Murdoch/Abbott alliance still has the power of the biased Murdochracy to "ferociously" destabilize the Australian Parliament which, in the words of Lord Haw Haw (Costello), should rather be acting in the best interests of the nation. Not bloody likely.

The shambles that Murdoch caused with his misinformation and misinterpretations are only now beginning to resonate in the minds of the thinkers amongst our voters.  The lies are being exposed; the thinkers are now wondering how they avoided massive unemployment and deep recession while the Labor government was, and is, portrayed as incompetent and unstable.  Fair dinkum.

Think reason and be logical - the "ferociously opposed" Liberal/Nationals have lost a media driven (Murdoch) election by circumstances that even the evil baron couldn't buy.

Jolly Joe Hockey has begun his slide down the Liberal credibility scale and appears to be just one of the (usually unreported) scrum players in defending the indefensible.

Among the many stupid accusations, hastily cobbled together by the so confident Murdoch/Abbott is that “Julia was not elected by the people” and “her party does not have a mandate”.  Just the latter alone should wake up the most non-political of our workers in that – IF Julia does NOT have a mandate to govern then – who does?

Again Joe and his morons claim that our Federal Labor government is illegitimate and he also conversely claims that with the assistance of the independents, he can gain a vote of no confidence in the Gillard government.

Just a moment Murdoch – IF Joe is right in that we have an illegitimate government without a mandate – then he doesn’t have to have a vote of no confidence does he?  But they can attack the dignity of the Governor General and claim that she was biased in her sworn obligation to abide by the Constitution and the Queen’s authority? Power-mad people but not Australian.

The Liberals should remember what happened to Gough Whitlam when his majority parliament voted no confidence in the minority party led by Malcolm Fraser, and when it was presented to the G-G Kerr at that time – he just refused to accept it.  THE DISMISSAL. Fair dinkum.

If the High Court rules according to its duty that is that the two Liberals mentioned have contravened the Constitution, then there is a chance that this media election can be stabilized by two bi-elections which Abbott has been pleading for.

In the meantime, this Prime Minister has impressed me with her courage and ability to do a “Hawkish” mediation which we so sadly need.  NE OUBLIE.

Consider this.

We Australians have just been exposed to the most illegitimate lies and misinformation that surely no other country has had to endure - among the "democracies".

Just Imagine - that the people under the flexible rules of democracy, genuinely elect a government, say like the Murdoch/Abbott alliance, and the mandate of that election is to have the "peoples choice" and is entitled to expect their choice of government to inform them of the pros and cons of how the nation is fairing.

However, the "freedom of the press" takes over and either does not print the truth or challenges the elected government.

This is a brief example of the situation that is sucking the life out of Australia.

Make your choice.  Would you rather be the beneficiary of a so-called democracy or would you rather be subject to the UNELECTED media and
who control the information fed to our citizens.

Control the information and you control the people.  NE OUBLIE.