A key independent lawmaker accused the leaders of Australia's two main political parties of attempting to buy power Friday as they battle to form the nation's first minority government since World War II.
Bob Katter is one of a trio of lawmakers with the power to make either the center-left Labor Party or the conservative Liberal Party-led coalition Australia's next government, after Aug. 21 election failed to deliver either side a majority.
He likened the leaders' wooing of independents to prostitution.
His criticism followed Thursday's decision by a fourth independent, Andrew Wilkie, to support Prime Minister Julia Gillard's Labor Party, rebuffing a 1 billion Australian dollar ($910 million) offer for a new local hospital from opposition leader local Tony Abbott if his Liberal Party-led coalition formed government.
Gillard offered Wilkie an immediate AU$100 million for a hospital upgrade plus a potential AU$240 million for further construction at the hospital.
"We've established that they're out there buying support. It's simply a matter of how bad you are at buying - how naughty," Katter told reporters of Gillard and Abbott. "This is not really good."
"If one person gets a thousand million, how many do three people get who can hand over the government of Australia?" Katter added.
Katter said he was "very disappointed" by Wilkie's negotiations, but said laughingly that his trio, which is negotiating as a bloc, might consider increasing their demands.
"There's a famous old saying ... we know what you are, it's just a matter of how expensive you are," Katter told reporters, suggesting that Wilkie was a political prostitute.
Wilkie's support gives Labor control of 74 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives - two short of a majority and one more than Abbott's coalition.
Labor has governed for the past three years and remains the caretaker government until the power struggle is resolved or Australians return to the polls.
Wilkie explained that he chose Labor because it was the party best able to form stable, competent and ethical government.
He described Abbott's offer as "reckless" because the opposition leader did not explain where the AU$1 billion would come from.
Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb said the offer was not a bargaining chip, and that the investment would still be made if his coalition can form government without Wilkie's support.
Katter on Friday delivered Gillard and Abbott a list of his 20 demands that he said "don't require money from government." They oppose Labor's policy of introducing taxes on carbon gas emissions and on mining companies' profits.
But Katter said the list did not reveal a preference for the conservatives, saying he would be naive to expect either side to fulfill all his demands.
Katter and his colleagues Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott have ruled out announcing decisions before next week.
Australian has not had a minority government since 1943.
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|