Australian PM facing high-wire act

Gillard will also be faced with an uncommonly strong and unified opposition which has “had a real whiff of government” after falling just short of its own majority, said Flinders University expert Haydon Manning.

“It only takes a big issue like say the carbon tax to see the independents wilt,” Manning said.

“Suddenly a big issue for the government doesn't get through the (lower) house, the Greens are barking wildly about it and eyes are darting in all directions, and then you just don't know whether a new election's around the corner.”

It would take the death or resignation of just one MP from the ruling Labor party to trigger another election, meaning Gillard's government was “massively going to be under the microscope and is on notice,” van Onselen said.

“But I think that can be a potential good thing for this government, because it's a government that was heavily criticized for over-promising and under-delivering in its first term,” he said.

Most experts agreed that Gillard's rule could last a full three-year term and said the Welsh-born former lawyer was best placed of anyone in the current parliament to make it happen.

“She has a new modus operandi to work with which you suspect just might fit her personality type and character,” Manning said.

“From the ashes of defeat she might really make something of this.”

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