New Australian Parliament historic but fragile -Experts

AUSTRALIA: The Australian parliament which meets this week will not only be unusual — boasting the nation’s first Aboriginal MP and the youngest ever lawmaker — it could also be short-lived, experts say.

Welsh-born Labour Prime Minister Julia Gillard became the country’s first woman leader in June and is set to control the 150-seat lower House of Representatives with the narrowest of majorities.

On her side will be the house’s first Muslim, Ed Husic, as well as former intelligence officer turned Iraq war whistleblower Andrew Wilkie, Greens MP Adam Bandt, and two ‘kingmaking’ independents, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott.

Also lurking in Labour’s ranks will be former prime minister Kevin Rudd, the man Gillard suddenly and spectacularly deposed as leader in a party room coup, only to appoint him her foreign minister after her knife-edge re-election.

In opposition leader Tony Abbott’s corner when the 43rd parliament opens on Tuesday will be 20-year-old Wyatt Roy, the youngest person ever elected to office, and Ken Wyatt, the first indigenous person to sit in the lower house. “It is going to be very fragile,” he told AFP. “It is going to be very, very testing for the government. I would be really surprised if we had this parliament sitting for three years.”

Gillard’s tightrope act to take power was one thing, but the challenges for the minority government will only mount, said Monash University’s Nick Economou.

Sydney, Sunday, AFP