'Kingmaker' MPs hold key to Australian government

Three “kingmaker” independent MPs had final meetings with Australia’s rival political leaders today before they decide who to elect prime minister of the nation’s first minority government in nearly 70 years.

Two of the three – Tony Windsor and Robb Oakeshott – said the trio was likely to vote as a bloc, giving prime minister Julia Gillard’s centre-left Labour Party a two-seat majority, or conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott a single-seat majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives.