Labor Party Clings to Power in Australia

Anchor: The Australian Labor Party, led by caretaker Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has won the two votes she needed from Independent MPs to clinch victory in the cliffhanger election. Gillard will form a minority government, the first of its kind in Australia for 70 years, and it is highly expected to benefit rural communities. CRI's Australia correspondent Chen Feng reports.

Reporter: After the general elections on August 21, the governing Labor Party had gained 72 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives and the opposition Coalition 73 seats. Since neither got the 76 seats needed to form a government on their own, 1 Greens MP and 4 Independents were left holding the balance of power.

In recent weeks, one Greens MP, Adam Bandt, and one Independent, Andrew Wilkie, pledged their support to Labor, and then early on Tuesday, another Independent Bob Katter announced he was backing the Coalition, leaving the election still deadlocked. The focus then turned to the two remaining Independents, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, both from rural New South Wales. The two men held a press conference Tuesday afternoon at Canberra's Parliamentary House, with Windsor the first to reveal his decision.

"With my vote, for what it worth, to support the Labor Party. The issue that I thought was critical to this, and possibly the most critical, was broadband. There is an enormous opportunity for regional Australians to engage with the infrastructure of this century."

With only one vote to go and Labor ahead 75-74, Oakeshott then milked his time in the spotlight for all it was worth, speaking for 17 minutes before announcing he, too, would also be giving them his vital vote.

He said his primary concern had been for rural education.

"And concern in regards to potential savings and cut in skills and training in one particular party's policy. Cutting things as simple as computers in schools and not working as well as other side on pathways and collaboration over the next three years around the transition from secondary to vocational education, through to tertiary. I acknowledged by Julia Gillard when she had the education portfolio, I hope that could continue into the future."

With her return to power now assured, Ms Gillard immediately announced that regional Australia would be the focus of the next government's health and education reform.

"So today I confirm that the next round of health and hospital's funding will be focused and dedicated to regional Australia. So will the next round of funding for the education investment fund. We will make sure that regional Australia gets its fair share, about upgraded primary care facilities from which doctors work, about our critical skills investment fund, about our new reward payment for schools and our new funding for local school control."

Gillard's comments were predictably well received in the Australian countryside. One farmer in Queensland hailed the election result as heralding a new era.

"Good on it. It really needs to be done. We need a change, we definitely need a change."

However, analysts say the Labor minority government is now facing a real risk of a weak government delivering poor policy or not too much policy, because Gillard only has the independent MPs' guarantees on confidence and supply, while all other parliamentary bills will have to be negotiated item by item.

For CRI, this is Chen Feng in Sydney.