CANBERRA - Julia Gillard has finally been confirmed as Australia's first elected female Prime Minister, more than two weeks after an election that has now given her a razor-thin majority with no certainty of policy support.
The decision of New South Wales' country independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott to defy their conservative rural voters and back Labor gave Gillard the 76 votes on confidence and supply she needed to form a new Government.
She had previously won the support of Melbourne Greens MP Adam Bandt and Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie.
Queensland independent Bob Katter broke from the ranks of the "three amigos" to hand his backing to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, joining the promise of the confidence and supply votes of West Australian Nationals MP Tony Crook, who has said he also intends to sit on the crossbenches.
Gillard welcomed the decision of Windsor and Oakeshott and said Labor was prepared to govern for the next three years in the best interests of the Australian people.
"If we fail in this solemn responsibility, we will be judged harshly when we next face the Australian people at the next election," she said.
But her job will be hard and delicately balanced: Windsor and Oakeshott both emphasised that their decision did not give Labor any mandate and that their support could not be taken for granted.
They also warned that their support was conditional on Government probity.
Windsor said that while he would back Gillard on votes of confidence and supply, he reserved the right to represent his constituents in any vote, and to move any no-confidence motions in the Government as he saw fit.
Oakeshott, who has been offered an unspecified senior position - presumably either as Speaker of the House or a ministry - said he would similarly support the Government except in "exceptional circumstances".
These could include maladministration or corruption, or the Government reneging on the regional package promised as part of the deal that won his support.
Gillard's conditional majority will require careful management and the development of new skills that no federal government has had to use since the last, brief, hung parliament 70 years ago.
She has also to face a Senate in which the balance of power will continue to be held jointly by the Greens, Family First Senator Steve Fielding and independent Nick Xenophon until the new members take their seats next July, handing control to nine Greens senators.
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