The Bill was defeated 24 votes to 11.

MPs who OPPOSED the Bill were: ALP - Ljlianna Ravlich, Matt Benson-Lidholm, Helen Bullock, Ed Dermer, Kate Doust, Colin Holt, Wendy Duncan, Mia Davies, Max Trenorden, LIBS - Ken Baston, Peter Collier, Brian Ellis, Donna Farragher, Nigel Hallett, Robin McSweeney, Norman Moore, Helen Morton, Simon O'Brien, Michael Mischin, Liz Behjat, Alyssa Hayden, Nick Goiran, Phil Edman, Jim Chown.

Those who SUPPORTED the Bill were: NATS - Philip Gardiner, ALP - Sally Talbot, Ken Travers, Linda Savage, John Ford, Sue Ellery, Adele Farina, GREENS - Lyn Maclaren, Alison Xamon, Giz Watson, Robin Chapple

The good news is that all the WA Liberal MPs, most of the Nationals, and almost half the Labor MPs opposed the Bill.

Naturally, ALL the Greens supported it!

WA euthanasia debate imminent

Australian Christian Lobby | It is highly likely that a bill to legalise euthanasia, introduced by Greens MP Robin Chapple, is going to be debated in West Australia’s Upper House next week. ACL is urging people who reside in the state and who value the unique and intrinsic worth of all human beings, no matter what their physical, mental or emotional state might be, to speak out against this law.

WA supporters please visit our ‘Care not killing’ campaign at www.makeastand.org.au to send an email to the Upper House MPs in your region letting them know that you are opposed to legalised euthanasia, because it devalues life by sending the dangerous message to the community that some lives are not worth living.

ACL commends MPs who supported orphans’ rights

Australian Christian Lobby | The Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby strongly commended the minority of NSW Parliamentarians who supported the rights of orphans and children given up for adoption to a mother and father.

“Throughout history it seems propaganda has intermittently triumphed over what is right or logical”, said Jim Wallace.

“Today is such a moment, all the sadder for the issue at stake – the best interests of the most vulnerable orphaned or relinquished children.”

“This debate has been waged by the gay and lesbian activists with smart marketing strategy, the usual deception and complete disregard for anyone else’s rights” said Mr Wallace.

A bonding bounded by an air of unreality

Michelle Grattan, SMH.com.au | JULIA Gillard has cobbled together the magic 76 number to save her hide, but the result will make good decisions difficult to deliver.

She will need great leadership skills, toughness and things to fall her way if she is to turn this fraught opportunity to her advantage.

In the end, the independents went as many had been predicting. Bob Katter reverted to his conservative roots, while Rob Oakeshott confirmed what had seemed his Labor inclination. Tony Windsor based his decision on a mixture of issues. In a moment of excessive frankness, he admitted he had believed a Coalition government would be more inclined to call an early election - because it would be a better bet to win. Once there is an election, the independents will almost certainly lose their pivotal position.

MPs awaken to the power of one

Peter Costello for the AGE | It's not just independents; anyone prepared to barter their vote can strike gold.

The country independents - Bob Katter, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor - are not accidental tourists who have wandered on to the political stage. They are career politicians who know what they are doing.

For years they have dreamed of this situation. Maybe the public has not heard of them before, but not because they are new to the political scene. If you add up their state and federal parliamentary terms, they are political veterans.

Katter is a second generation politician who holds a seat previously held by his father. He has been an MP for more than 35 years. He was first elected to the Queensland Parliament in 1974 - when Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard were still at high school. He spent six years as a minister, starting in the Bjelke-Petersen government.

Windsor has been an MP for 20 years - first elected to the New South Wales seat of Tamworth. If he looks like he knows what he is doing, it is because he does. He was one of the independents who put Liberal premier Nick Greiner back into office after the Coalition lost its majority in the 1991 NSW election. He became a hero in his electorate for bringing all sorts of benefits that come to an independent who holds the balance of power. And that is what launched his federal career

Oakeshott is the baby of the group, having served only 14 years in Parliament - longer than Julia Gillard has been in Parliament and a fraction shorter than Tony Abbott. Like Gillard and Abbott, Oakeshott was a political staffer before he was first elected. He used to work as the media adviser to Mark Vaile (who later became the leader of the National Party), which was when I first met him in 1993.

Christian vote again hailed as significant in 2010 Federal election

Australian Christian Lobby | For the second Federal election in a row, the Christian vote has been hailed as having a significant effect on the outcome – further highlighting the need for political parties to be mindful of the Christian constituency.

A recent demographic analysis of the 2010 election results by research and demographic marketing group, Australian Development Strategies – headed by former Queensland ALP Senator John Black – reveals that the loss of Kevin Rudd’s pro-Christian profile cost the ALP support in marginal seats, particularly in the key states of Queensland and NSW.

Writing in Monday’s Australian Financial Review (offline), John Black highlighted this fact but also added that, on the flip side, “Gillard’s lack of religious beliefs – or the absence of Rudd’s Christian image – may have led to an increase in the swings to Labor candidates from agnostics and atheists.”

Tellingly though, Christian voters appear to have had a far greater impact.

Brown the winner in hard-ball game

Michelle Grattan, SMH.com.au | This might be a very ''old paradigm'' view of things, but Bob Brown seems to have had a comprehensive win over Julia Gillard.

Gillard didn't need a formal alliance with the Greens. On the crucial issues of supply and confidence in the government, she already had the vote of Adam Bandt, the Green in the House. By entering a deal, she has given the Greens some policy concessions and, although it is not a coalition, a foot under the desk of government, via formal meetings and briefings.

As part of the deal, a new committee of MPs and experts will be set up to work towards a carbon price. It will include only supporters of such a price, so it will just be investigating the best way of achieving this goal.

Although Gillard wouldn't actually say so, the committee would replace her much ridiculed Citizens' Assembly, which was supposed to seek consensus on climate change. Gillard says the assembly was only a ''mechanism'' to pursue consensus - she is not hung up on whether that mechanism is used or some other.

Few will lament the end of the assembly idea. It was always silly. But that Gillard is so ready to throw it out brings into doubt her credibility. She is willing to break an election promise even before being reconfirmed as PM.