Australian voters want independents to support Labor

SYDNEY - Australian voters want the three independent MPs to support a Labor government led by incumbent Prime Minister Julia Gillard rather than join the opposition coalition, a survey said Saturday.

The survey also found out that if Australia again went to the polls, there would be a small shift towards the coalition but the result would be the same - a hung parliament, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The poll was conducted by Telereach-JWS with 4,192 voters.

Labor now has 74 seats and needs two more to form the government, while the Coalition led by Tony Abbott has 73 seats.

All three rural independent MPs - Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter - are yet to decide whom to support.

The survey says 37 percent of voters want the rural trio to side with Labor compared to 31 percent for Abbott, while 26 percent want another election.

It also found that 42 percent felt a “Labor-Greens alliance” would be bad for the country but 43 percent felt it would be good. The Australian Greens have one seat.

The three independents are expected to make a decision Monday. Katter and Windsor said Friday they may all go the same way.