Why do I think the independents are probably going to go with the party that gets along with the Greens the best? Think about it, Liberals will have a bitch fight on their hands every time they want something passed in the senate wheres Labour usually has the Greens support (not all the time though but more than the liberals).. But then, that could be a good thing. Depends I guess on what they want and how much the independents want their own policies pushed through parliament and the senate..
And something a friend said with regards to this [hung] election
A hung parliament doesn't mean that a minority government can't pass any new laws - it means it has to negotiate with the independents (and greens) as to what those laws are.
Any new laws will have to get past the Senate as well - where the greens hold the balance of power.
As for the lower house - we have one Green member in melbourne and one semi-green in Tasmania. As well as a very idiosyncratic bunch who are probably more likely to side with Labor than the Coalition.
Bob Katter is loathed by the Nationals (the feeling is reciprocated).
He said he would work with the Greens if there was a hung Parliament.
He says a privatised NBN will not work, saying "privatised Telstra has been absolutely disastrous for rural Australia."
His father was originally a Labor politician who switched to the (then) Country Party.
Tony Windsor is another ex-National Party member.
He believes strongly in the NBN and his views are quite "green" on climate change.
Rob Oakeshott is another ex-National Party member.
He names climate change as a top priority.
He says an emissions trading scheme should be a key policy of any government he will help form.
Andrew Wilkie is a former Young Liberal who ran for the Greens and sees health and education as critical.
He wants dental included in Medicare and is not keen on private health.
Tony Crook is a Nationals MP but has not committed to joining the Coalition.
He says he wants to be part of the cross-bench negotiations.
Oakeshott, Katter and Windsor are best described as "agrarian socialists" in the old-fashioned Country Party sense (the Country party was the precursor to the Nationals).
the other thing is that the Coalition has for a long time denigrated the independants and been personally insulting to them; whereas both Rudd and Gillard have taken pains to remain friendly with them - to the extent of visiting their electorates and making sure that the local members were included in infrastructure funding announcements etc.
