After a shotgun election that turned into weeks of deliberations, negotiations and political stunts, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she’s set to go the distance.

With a one seat majority, the odds of serving a full three year term are stacked against her.

Sacha Passi reports.

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TRANSCRIPT

Seventeen days after Australians went to the polls, Julia Gillard scraped into power.

The question now is how long will she last?

Julia Gillard, Prime Minister: “I know that if we fail in this sole responsibility we will be judged harshly when we next face the Australian people.”

The Prime Minister’s confident she”ll serve a full three year term.

But not everyone’s convinced.

Graham Richardson, ALP Power Broker: “You can imagine her to go at least a year or two. I can’t imagine three years though.”

The Opposition won’t be pushing for Australians to rush back to the polls.

But the Gillard government will need to prove it can do the job.

Tony Abbott, Opposition leader: “If the Government is seriously incompetent it should be gone as quickly as possible.”

Julia Gillard, Prime Minister: “We will be held more accountable than ever before and more than any government in modern memory.”

Sweetened by the promise of 10-billion dollars for regional and rural services Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor backed Prime Minister Gillard.

Tony Windsor, Independent: “I slept well as I made the right decision. I think I’ve made the right call. I woke up feeling good about it this morning.”

The Opposition says more than half of the regional funding will come from the controversial mining tax.

Warren Truss, National Party Leader: “It’s only going to trickle into country areas. But worse than that the mining tax is going to cost thousands of jobs in regional Queensland.”

In what could prove a tedious three years all policies will have to include negotiations with four independents and one Green before being presented to parliament.

Prime Minister Gillard’s challenge now, is to show she can go the distance.

Sacha Passi, QUT News.