The new stars are the three independents, Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter.
In the recent elections for the Australian Parliament, the House of Representatives, the result was inconclusive with the current result being (they're still counting) Labor getting 71 seats and the Liberal Coalition 72 seats with 4 independents, 1 Green MP and 2 seats still undecided.
To form a Government you need 76 seats.
I recently watched the three Independents Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter and Greens MP Adam Bandt appeared together at the National Press Club in Canberra and I have to say, I was impressed.
The new stars, now with lots of Power, seemed to wield their power responsibly and at times seemed almost Presidential.
The Independent MP for Lyne, Robert Oakeshott was very impressive: he seemed to have a focused vision and explained, in a couple of sentences, where things had failed in the Australian Parliament.
For example, Robert Oakeshott explained where things had gone wrong in the Climate Change debate and process: he identified that the Government had dropped the ball at the final stage after the professional and consultants had done all their work.
Robert Oakeshott's way of cutting through all the ideology to the essential issues, marked him as a star for me: I was left thinking to myself 'I wish he was the Prime Minister' [and I'm normally a Labor voter and I believe Robert Oakeshott was a former National Party member!] Tony Windsor the MP for New England, was very good as well, he stated his position clearly and warned that he may not support either major party if they were not committed to stable government.
This position was echoed by the two other independents.
In addition he said he was "not interested in forming a government if in fact it is the agenda of that government to get the polls as quickly as possible".
Mr Windsor also said that the independents were trying a establish a different pathway, this was refreshing coming from, I believe, the three former National Party members.
I must confess, I was never really a fan of Bob Katter the Independent MP for Kennedy, but even he was really good: he focused on the tasks before the independents and seemed to have a very clear view of what was important to Australia and his electorate of Kennedy.
I went away thinking that the people of Kennedy would be well served by Bob Katter and that they were luck to have him.
Oakeshott for PM.