Wilkie has crossed a thin line

Be it noted: it was not good enough for Gillard merely to try to help. The legislation must pass or else the Government might be brought down by him.

I called that "an important feature of the bullying process". Others called that "blackmail".

One has to wonder about our system and Wilkie's place in it.

With Adam Bandt of the Greens we can say at least that his party received 12 per cent of the overall vote at the August 2010 election which is why they also have nine of the 76 senators.

With Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor we can say that neither man made unreasonable demands in return for their support.

But what can we say about Wilkie? I would say he represents a tiny Tasmanian electorate which he won on preferences after coming third on the primary count.

The vagaries of the electoral system then produced an overall fluke result which gave him enormous power he then abused.

Above all else it never occurred to him that he might lose that power but on Thursday, November 24, last year, he lost that power when the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives passed from Harry Jenkins to Peter Slipper.

Could Gillard seriously be blamed when she said to herself that day, "Now I can get the monkey Wilkie off my back" ? Then, last Saturday, a thoroughly sensible announcement of policy was made.

Predictably, that announcement was greeted by (largely) hypocritical denunciation from politicians of left and right. And media commentators asked us to have sympathy for Wilkie, of whom cartoons showed knives in his back.

When Gillard broke her "no carbon tax" promise she had a duty to explain herself to the Australian people.

By contrast neither party to the Gillard/Wilkie agreement needs to explain anything.