• Peter Browne

30 August 2010The sudden rise to influence of the independent MPs is a challenge to the two-party system and how it’s reported, writes Peter Browne in Inside Story

“IT’S GETTING to the stage where Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and the nation would actually be better of if we just went back to the polls.” Dennis Shanahan’s comment in today’s Australian might be a sincere piece of political analysis, a cry from the heart or a shrewd judgement about which way the independents might jump, but it also says something about the role of the Canberra press gallery in national politics. This is an intensely interesting period in Australian political history, and yet running through the commentary seems to be an assumption that the pre-election status quo – which had almost brought policy-making to a halt on both sides of parliament – is preferable to allowing the three independents any say over the composition of the next government. It’s not surprising that…

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Photo: Independent member for New England, Tony Windsor