It seems the most likely outcome of the recent election is that we will have a minority Liberal-National government, completely dependent for its survival on the loyalty of three independents, and even then only having a 76- 74 majority.

A better idea, though one without precedent in Australia, would be a ‘grand coalition’ of Liberal, National and Labor parties. Mr Abbott and Ms Gillard could take it in turns to be Prime Minister while other ministers could be drawn from both sides of politics on a roughly equal basis.

This could mean that the government of Australia could get on with the job of governing and tackling this country’s many challenges as only a government can, instead of playing politics and point-scoring as has become the recent pattern. The electorate is bored with this and disrespect for politicians is palpable.

There is a recent precedent in other countries – Israel and Germany have both had grand coalition governments formed from the major political groupings, to avoid having a minority government at the mercy of small extreme parties and independents. In Israel a minority of religious ratbags exerts an undue influence over the country.

In Australia we need to avoid the government and its decisions being at the mercy of an uneducated eccentric bible-basher in a cowboy hat.