Labor draws level as Gillard signs up Greens' Bandt

CANBERRA - Caretaker Prime Minister Julia Gillard has moved to shore up her claim for power with a formal agreement ensuring the support of the Greens, as the four independents remain undecided on who should govern Australia.

The deal signed between Gillard and Greens leader Bob Brown yesterday guarantees the support of Adam Bandt, the Greens' first federal MP, taking the number of House of Representatives seats the Government controls to 73.

The deal will also strengthen Labor's case for stability in government through the balance of power that the Greens will hold in the Senate, when the new senators elected in the August 21 election take their seats next July.

The Opposition also claims 73 Lower House seats, including new West Australian Nationals MP Tony Street, who has said he will sit on the crossbenches as an independent outside his federal party, the junior partner in the Coalition.

None of the independents whose support will take either Labor or the Coalition to the 76 seats needed to win office has yet announced his decision, although Queenslander Bob Katter told ABC radio yesterday he was close to making up his mind.

Katter said he would wait for fellow independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor to make their decisions, after their agreement to form a common approach to determining whether Gillard or Opposition leader Tony Abbott should become the next prime minister.

The fourth independent, Tasmanian Andrew Wilkie, is acting alone and told the Age he was waiting for a formal proposal from the Coalition after rejecting an approach from Labor that he found unacceptable.

Gillard's deal with the Greens was reached after a series of commitments which included the axing of Labor's much-ridiculed proposal for a "citizens' assembly" to debate climate change.

The assembly would have comprised 150 "ordinary Australians" whose brief would have been to reach a consensus that would not be binding on the Government.

The proposal was part of a climate change package Gillard announced during the election campaign, replacing the emissions trading scheme previously dumped by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, contributing significantly to the swing away from Labor that could hand power to Abbott.

Under the deal, a new Labor Government would, instead, establish a climate change committee that Brown said would involve expert scientific, economic and political advice and include consideration of a carbon price.

Gillard rejected claims by Abbott that this represented Labor's first broken election promise, and said she would pursue the idea of a citizens' assembly through the committee.

As well as the new committee, Gillard agreed to a parliamentary debate on the war in Afghanistan - the Greens want Australian troops pulled out - new rules on political advertising and donations, a parliamentary budget committee and integrity commissioner, a commitment to full three-year terms and a referendum on the constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians.

Gillard and Brown said the agreement was not a formal coalition.

"Mr Bandt in the House of Representatives and the Greens in the Senate will make up their mind on propositions before the Parliament," Gillard said.

"They will vote in accordance with their party's policies, their conscience [and] what Mr Bandt considers to be in the best interests of his electorate."

Gillard denied that the agreement would force Labor to break election commitments, and said the deal would ensure the two parties worked towards stable and effective government.

Brown said the agreement was designed to ensure parliamentary continuity.

"There is always a reticence to stepping into the icy waters of political dealing, but we are the most experienced party on this in Australia," he said.

Brown also said that during discussions on Tuesday night Abbott had warned that he would attack any agreement the Greens signed with Labor: "I said that's his right."

Abbott said it was obvious Gillard and Brown had reached a "clear understanding" before the election that, if it had been made public, would have prompted people to vote differently.

He said he had told Brown and the Greens that the Government was the most corrupted Labor Party in history, "completely run by hollow men ... [and which] has no soul whatsoever".

"This is a Labor Party which deserves to lose, yet this is a Labor Party which Bob Brown has thrown a lifeline to, and I'm just extremely disappointed with Bob Brown because he is a man who has always stood for political integrity," Abbott said.

Although Abbott and Brown said they would work together in the Senate if the Coalition won power, the Greens oppose key Opposition policies and would remain inclined towards Labor.

The independents had late yesterday not commented on the Labor-Greens deal, but it could act as a two-edged sword for Gillard.

While support of the Greens in the Senate would bolster Labor's claims for stability in government, the three rural-based MPs oppose some key Greens policies and represent electorates that voted strongly against the two parties.

The vote for the Greens in their seats ran at just 3-4 per cent.