The Coalition's preparing to form government in Victoria for the first time in 11 years. Counting of more than half a million pre-poll votes starts today. The Liberals look set to win the crucial seat of Bentleigh. That’ll give the Coalition the 45 seats that it needs to form government. 

 

Federal MPs are also back in Canberra today for what they hope will actually be the last sitting day for the year. There'll be voting on a bill to split Telstra, which was finally passed by the Senate on Friday. 

 

New South Wales Labor is now turning on its own that Premier Kristina Keneally is demanding the party's state president resign. Bernie Riordan is desperately backtracking now on comments that he made that the union he heads will support non-Labor candidates in the March state election.

 

And Wikileaks has thumbed its nose at Washington and released truckloads of documents showing how the United States conducts its foreign relations. Among the revelations, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates believes a military strike on Iran would only set back its nuclear programme by one to three years and Saudi donors remain the chief financial backers of al-Qaeda.