Independents to meet prime ministerial candidates

Three independent politicians who will likely decide which party governs Australia said today they plan to demand details of how much competing election promises would cost the nation over the next three years.

The national budget is one of seven key subjects on which the independents will demand information from the two political leaders vying to become prime minister following weekend elections that failed to deliver a winner.

Independent Rob Oakeshott said he and his two colleagues would not reveal the other six subjects until after conferring with caretaker Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott in separate meetings at Parliament House later today.

Neither Ms Gillard nor Mr Abbott can form a government without the support of independents because no major party won an outright majority of 76 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives.

Mr Oakeshott said the independents wanted access to the government’s top financial bureaucrats as part of their budget investigations.

“We do think this is about the economy and we do think the next three years need some consideration of things such as election promises and election commitments,” Mr Oakeshott told reporters.

The centre-left Labour Party, which governed for the past three years, and Mr Abbott’s conservative Liberal Party-led coalition accused each other during the five-week election campaign of understating the costs of their own promises.

The kingmaker independents promised to support whoever best offers stable government, but say a final deal cannot be struck until after final vote counts, which could come late next week.

The election results ignited bitter recriminations within Labour over how they could become Australia’s first government in almost 70 years to be thrown out of power after a single three-year-term.

At the same time, tensions became apparent between two independents – Tony Windsor and Bob Katter – and the opposition coalition.

The independents are all former members of the Nationals party, the Liberals’ junior coalition partner, and became scathing critics of their former party.

Mr Windsor – who since the election described the Nationals as a “cancer-causing agent” and the party’s Senate leader a “fool” and “an embarrassment” – said today he had good relations with both Labour and the coalition.

He was confident that a deal could be struck to create a government and avoid the need for another election.

“This thing will work out. It will take time. It might be a week or 10 days but we’re developing a process that will resolve it,” he told Nine Network television.

Newspapers reported today that Mr Katter branded the Liberals “slimy dogs” in May when he allegedly threatened to kill Liberal politician Peter Lindsay during an argument at an airport.

Mr Lindsay wrote to police alleging Mr Katter “said he would have me killed and I better believe it because he could make it happen”, News Ltd newspapers reported.

Mr Katter today laughed off the reports as “absolute rubbish.” Mr Lindsay, who retired at the election, declined to comment.

A police spokeswoman said Mr Lindsay contacted police on May 30 but did not make a formal complaint.

Mr Katter fuelled unrest within Labour by telling a newspaper in a report published today that Labour politicians made a mistake by dumping their former prime minister Kevin Rudd two months before the election.

“If Rudd was still in the seat, it would be very hard to go against Kevin,” Mr Katter told Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The Australian Electoral Commission said today that the ruling Labour Party had likely won 70 seats in the House of Representatives and the Liberal-led coalition 72 seats, with more than 79% of the vote counted.