Senator Joyce, who has crossed the floor to vote against the Coalition more than 20 times since he entered the Senate in 2005, said his new position as the Nationals’ Senate leader would not alter his ways. “I am who I am by the grace of God, and I’m not going to change,” he said.

West Australian premier-elect Colin Barnett has today unveiled a 17-member cabinet featuring three Nationals MPs and an independent, Liz Constable. The Liberals formed a minority government this week after gaining the support of the Nationals in the state’s hung parliament.

Colin Barnett’s administration is barely ready for government. Whle the front bench will include some talented performers, for the most part the Liberal Party has spent the past 3 1/2 years as a rabble. However the soon-to-be-minted premier is a substantial figure and will now carry the all-important gravitas of incumbency.

The surreal is everywhere. Witness Alan Carpenter, failed Premier from the rivers of gold state Western Australian telling the ABC’s The 7.30 Report on Monday that he wants to start “a completely new era in Western Australian governance” by teaming up with the Nationals. No, it wasn’t Clarke and Dawe. Don’t check your sets, this is supposed to be serious.

The problem for the voters of Lyne is that the high profile of newly elected independent MP Rob Oakeshott will not necessarily translate into real political achievement. Not unless the government of the day becomes dependent on one or more independents to sustain its majority in the House of Representatives.

With the outcome of the Western Australian election in doubt and upheavals in New South Wales, the aftershocks of the weekend’s ruptures in the Labor Party will be felt in Canberra. But other parties also have their problems. From coast-to-coast Labor governments to coast-to-coast confusion has taken a mere 10 months.

Resurgent Liberal leader Colin Barnett, who put aside plans of retirement to contest the election, will meet Brendon Grylls today, in order to try to lock in the four seats the Nationals are expected to win. Mr Grylls has promised to support the party most willing to back his “royalties for regions” plan.

The Nationals have made their royalties for regions plan the non-negotiable starting point for their support of either major party following Saturday’s inconclusive poll. Neither party is likely to be able to form government in their own right following a 6 per cent swing against the governing Labor party.

Nationals leader Brendon Grylls says he will form government with whichever party endorses his plan to earmark a quarter of the state’s mining and petroleum royalties for regional Western Australia. Earlier, Mr Grylls stated that he is not interested in the lure of the deputy premier’s job or a frontbench position in the new cabinet.

Whatever the outcome of the next few days, Western Australia’s regional area seems set to hold the whip hand. It is an ironic twist, given that the one-vote, one-value electoral redistribution was supposed to dilute the power of the bush. Instead, the swing to the Liberals will give regional WA more power than ever.