Hammer time 4- Let's no longer even pretend

Pretend to know what in hell is going on I mean.

Wise men or stooges? Via Fairfax

Here's what seemed to happen. The three independents had a chat, or as BobKat might say, a yarn, or a chin-thump, or a begdraggle, or a fist-o-schmuck, or whatever collection of sounds first come into his plus-size head, and they came up with a plan. They then strode to a courtyard on a pathetically cold Canberra day and laid it all out. They've written a seven point plan. They want to see everything, speak to everyone, and figure who is full of it and who is marginally less full of it. They then went to the press club to speak on this and wider issues. They were joined by Adam Bandt, who is experiencing the biggest rollercoaster intro to Australian politics in some time. He was right to look scared of BobKat, who mixed pure sense with heartfelt rural conservatism and then some really loud shouting. 

The issues seem to be- friendliness, being nice, being open to crazy stuff, red team mixing with blue team making purple people eating team, so on. And access to everything. Everything. Including treasury costings, which apparently made Mr Abbott rather tense on Sky News this evening. I was watching Kerry O'B, but the twittering classes made many notes of Abbott's proclamation that public servants aren't to be handling important information like Treasury costing stuff. Forgetting that Treasury is full of public servants. Who balance the books. Unlike, we suspect, Mr Abbott and his shady finance posse who should've been hammered in the final week of the campaign.


All the sounds the independents are making sound like Labor-preferencing sounds, but big obstacles lurk- the conservative electorates from which they've emerged front and centre. But Gillard did well in her press call and agreed to all the demands. Now the three head home, returning to Canberra next week. And the nation, energised by possibility and the strangeness of the situation, are forced to wait some more. There is, I suggest, a window for conversation and change. But it won't be open long. The question is how patient will the nation be, and might they turn on these three, soon to four, and maybe five (the Tuckey-crushing National now considers himself a cross-bencher). As the count goes on, the focus will wane, and then what?

UPDATE 10:45
Ok- so you know how Karl Bitar and Labor were waiting and hoping for Abbott to make that Abbott error, the one where he spits it? Seems that presser mentioned above was far more critical than I thought. A game changer perhaps. Tony won't have Treasury access the books. Because? For, as BobKat said on Lateline, he looks pretty bad. Pretty bad indeed. Like he's hiding something. Or he wants another election. Not a smart move. As Arch Bevis storms home in Brisbane (and with Hasluck pretty well gone), that's Labor 73 (+ Adam Bandt), LNP 72 (- Tony Crook, maybe), 4 ind. It's all gotta go Labor's way, but Abbott is doing his best to help.