She’s got the numbers to remain Australia’s first-ever woman prime minister. Julia Gillard is to form a minority government with a one seat majority after winning support from independent and Green MPs.

She said: “Labor is prepared to deliver stable, effective and secure government for the next three years. Ours will be a government with just one purpose, and that’s to serve the Australian people.”

Opposition leader Tony Abbot had also been trying to woo the independents for their support after recent early elections delivered Australia’s first hung parliament since World War Two.

A government supported by the Greens will see the mining industry hit by a new tax on profits, but it is not clear how much. Policies on climate change had been a key election topic, and caused a headache for Gillard’s predecessor, Kevin Rudd.

Copyright © 2012 euronews