…or just plain weird. As expected the independents went 2-1 to Gillard. Oakeshott and Windsor have sold out their own electorates for power. It took Oakeshott a good amount of time to tell everyone what he was doing. Some of his statements during the press conference are indicative of a man that has risen well above his intellectual station in life – like saying this is going to be beautiful parliament in its ugliness. Is he a poet now? They both became very defensive when pressed on the demands of their local people.

They both claimed that they are going ALP to keep government stable – with the Greens to control the balance of power in the Senate. Stability has become code for keeping government hostage to their minority demands for the next three years. Aka:

Mr Windsor later said he has favoured Labor because he thought Mr Abbott would want to rush back to the polls “because I think he would win”.  “They (Labor) are more likely to be here for a longer period of time if they can’t go back to the polls in a hurry. They’ve got more to lose.”

In all of this the will of the people, both in Windsor and Oakeshott’s own electorates and the nation have been secondary considerations.

The most ugly thing in this upcoming Parliament will be the Greens. How much MPs can tolerate them is only a question of time – at least in the short-term.

UPDATE

So this is the up shot. The Coalition have won the primary vote by around 700,000 votes, so far winning the two-party preferred vote and have the biggest block of seats in the HoR. It is not game over yet. The cowardly way Windsor and Oakeshott have run away from their own electorates speaks volumes of their own self importance and the $53 billion deal ($10bn for regions, $43bn NBN) they did with the ALP. My only question is:

Where the bloody hell is

all the money going to come from?!?

There is no way Gillard is going to be able to deliver a budget surplus at any time in the next three years. Already we learn that Treasury’s estimates for  mining tax revenue are short by $8 billion dollars and now on top of all this pork barrelling the budget is royally stuffed – like a genetically modified hormone growth fed turkey at Christmas time.

UPDATE II

The nation’s bank manager just said no to the deal – WA Premier:

Mr Barnett says he does not believe the outcome will benefit the state.

“I can only assume now that the mining tax proposal will go ahead, which basically amounts to the eastern states taxing Western Australia,” he said.

“I also think, and particularly for country areas, you can expect to see a lot more environmental restrictions on farmers, on mining, on other industries; industries that are the backbone of the West Australian economy.