LEICHHARDT member-elect Warren Entsch says he is not surprised Tasmanian Independent Andrew Wilkie backed the Labor Party to form a  
minority government.

Mr Wilkie became the first of the four "kingmaker" MPs to declare which party he would back as the major parties look to the independents to resolve their hung parliament limbo.

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"I’d always counted him as a Labor number," Mr Entsch said yesterday.

"I always thought it would come down to the three rural independents.

"I just look at their constituencies and think it (the Coalition) is the only way they can go, especially if they are looking at issues like fishing and, in Katter’s case, Wild Rivers."

Mr Wilke, who negotiated separately to the other three independents, declared yesterday that Labor had won him over with promises to tackle problem gambling and to boost hospitals.

Labor now has 74 members on its side, after Australian Greens MP Adam Bandt signed up on Wednesday.

To form minority government, the ALP needs two of the three other independents who are yet to make up their minds.

In Labor’s favour is the fact that at least one independent, Tony Windsor, has reservations about trusting the Coalition after holes were found in its election promise costings.

Mr Wilkie won $100 million and possibly more to rebuild the Royal Hobart Hospital and a commitment to force the states to introduce a uniform smart-card system on poker machines if they won’t volunteer.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had agreed to gaming reform, but hadn’t detailed his promise, and had gone further on the hospital, offering
$1 billion.

But Mr Wilkie said he had more confidence in Prime Minister Julia Gillard and urged the other independents to get on board.

"I hope that they follow me," he said in Canberra.

"I want a Labor government. For all its weaknesses and faults, I think it would be the best government out of the two for the next three years."

Hours before Mr Wilkie’s decision, the Coalition was on the back foot as it went into critical talks with Mr Windsor and the other independents Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter.

The three were meeting shadow cabinet in Canberra after their inquiries with Treasury found between $7 billion and $11 billion in discrepancies in Coalition costings.

An apparent Treasury leak to the media meant the Coalition didn’t trust it to scrutinise the figures before the polls, handing them instead to a private firm.

The Coalition played down Treasury’s queries as mere differences of opinion, with Mr Abbott arguing the independents had more to consider than the costings quibble.

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