anyway you look at it they were part of a hopelessly incompetent Government. They leave hanging their heads in shame.

...I I think 17 minutes might have seen it out rather than 20. In fact it was only 2 minutes longer than Julia Gillard's misogyny speech and calling it 'vast exercise in grandstanding' is overstating it more than a little.

WOW, talk about splitting hairs.

Now there's a HUGE difference, as the countries next three years was riding on the stretched out outcome of that speech.

...but rather because he believed in allowing governments to govern

More reason that siding with the libs would have made a far better majority, leading the way for easier governing.

It stands to reason that if you wish to aid any government, in a hung parliament, that your vote would be far better placed with the one who stood the chance of having the greater majority, which in this case was the libs, as Bob Katter had already announced his move.

My quick calculations would have seen the libs with a three seat majority, not just one.

More of the same nastiness,
coming across here from the usual predictable
sources.

Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott are an example of
how politicians should work. They were reasonable
men who took their job seriously. They insisted on
scrutiny, and research and consultation. They
always tried to act in the best interests of the nation,
even when it had the potential to damage their own causes.

Mr "Point of Order," Christopher Pyne made the asinine
statement that the reason these Independents were leaving
was due to the fact that they would not be re-elected.
A truly asinine statement given their 2010 election results
and a perfect example of the type of nonsense to which the
Independents (and the former PM) have been subjected during
their entire difficult time in this minority government.

I only wish that there were more politicians like them.
Our Parliament will certainly be the poorer by their
absence.

Dear rehctub,

You wrote;

“It stands to reason that if you wish to aid any government, in a hung parliament, that your vote would be far better placed with the one who stood the chance of having the greater majority, which in this case was the libs, as Bob Katter had already announced his move.”

While not a position I agree with it is still a reasonable one. Rod Oakshott made his own decision based on 17 days of careful deliberation. He came to a different conclusion and if Abbott had chosen made more constructive use of a hung parliament I think his hopes for the following three years may well have been realised. That was his biggest misjudgement in my book but I still applaud the idealism.

What is not a reasonable position is to be labelling either of these gentlemen as corrupt, gutless, treasonous, swine which they are patently not.

There was a little snippet on Late Line last night where Rod Oakshott reaffirmed to Julia Gillard in parliament what he had texted to he after the ballot, that her father would have been proud of her. I think that was a gesture of a sincere and caring individual. Compare that to Abbott's 'Dying of Shame!' salvo he aimed at the Prime Minister in a premeditated and scripted attack on her at a vulnerable period in her life and I think the differences between the behaviour of these two independents, measured and gentlemanly, compared to the savagery of party politics is stark. That savagery is reflected in the tone of many of the posts here and does none of you credit.

I repeat, these two have conducted themselves in a manner any of us would hope for our politicians, and they should be lauded for what they are, fine examples of members who did the best for their constituents, regional Australia, and the country.

Even if you totally disagree about their decision the fact you can't recognise these men for what they are and what they represent is just plain sad.

Oakeshott and Windsor have abandoned ship before they were humiliated at the polls.

Lexi is being completely partisan, the only reason she sings these idiots praise is because they betrayed their conservative electorates to give us the worst government after Whitlam.

No thread on the independents would be complete without revisiting Windsor's take on Mr Abbott.

http://watchingthedeniers.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/youre-an-absolute-disgrace-full-text-of-tony-windsors-speech-that-put-abbott-in-his-place/

Who could forget Mr Abbott famously imploring him with the words' "I will do anything, Tony [Windsor], to get this job, the only thing I wouldn't do is sell my arse."

There's yer dinky-di man of honour.

What do you reckon, rehctub?