And they said it wouldn't last.
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It's now approaching three years ago that people crammed into a committee room at Parliament House to hear two independents tell the nation who their government would be. Rob Oakeshott famously took ages and ages to confirm what everyone had kinda been suspecting. But, hey, we'd already been waiting 17 days. What was another 17 minutes?
In September 2010, Oakeshott predicted the hung parliament would be ''beautiful in its ugliness''. While it would be hard to find anyone in 2013 to deem it a beauty, its ugliness has certainly been effective. Despite the government permanently teetering on the brink of collapse, the Parliament has passed 582 pieces of legislation (with one week still to go). Under the last Howard government, with a majority in both houses, 549 pieces got through.
On Wednesday, outgoing Labor MP Sharon Grierson credited Julia Gillard with Labor's achievements in this period: ''Colleagues said to me last week, 'It's a bit of a miracle that we are still here.' Yes, it is, and it is a Julia Gillard miracle. Thank you, Prime Minister, for your unswerving leadership and your determination to steer us through this hung parliament - a task no other member of this caucus could have achieved.''
As this column is hell-bent on not mentioning leadership this week (because no one actually knows what's going on), we will sidestep the veiled references here and note that in addition to Gillard, players such as Albo (who has taken the lead on crossbench negotiations) have been central to keeping the parliamentary project on track. That, and with a large proportion of the legislation just ticking through on voices, things have been more collegiate than they seemed.
Question time may be full of heckles and people having to withdraw ''hypocrite'', but this masks the working relationships that exist across party lines.
Indeed, the line-up of valedictories this week reminded us of another ideal outlined at the outset of this Parliament: a ''kinder, gentler polity''.
In his farewell speech, Robert McClelland specifically acknowledged the relationships he had with Coalition MPs who shared his portfolios over the years. ''I can say that on each and every occasion I dealt with them … they dealt with me in good faith and I never, ever once questioned their motives,'' he said.
In his address, Labor backbencher Steve Gibbons - famous for tweeting that Tony Abbott was a ''douche bag'' and Julie Bishop was a ''narcissistic bimbo'' - talked about the ''lasting'' friendships he had made on all sides of the house.
''There are [even] two members of the opposition that I regard as close friends,'' he continued. ''I will not name them because I do not want to embarrass them!''
Liberal moderate Mal Washer was even more effusive in his love for MP-kind. As he said on Wednesday: ''I cannot think of one person I have met in this long journey I would not regard as a friend. I will miss all of you equally.''
Later that night at the Midwinter Ball, MPs hammed it up in bipartisan style for the traditional joke video (which features much questionable dancing and lip synching). Joe Hockey and Kevin Rudd jammed on the grand piano in the Great Hall, Barnaby Joyce and Penny Wong passed the time of day in a committee room, and Josh Frydenberg and Ed Husic jumped around an office. There was also a sense of coming together for charity. In their ball speeches, both Gillard and Abbott made mention that they had temporarily ceased hostilities (sort of).
But as the good times and bonhomie rolled on, they threw the ugliness of the asylum seeker debate into stark contrast, which continued this week with no sign of any let-up.
In a slight variation on a very familiar theme, we had the Coalition calling on Gillard to apologise for changing the laws that ''reinvigorated the people-smuggling trade'' and Gillard accusing various members of the Coalition of ''voting for more boats'' (by not backing the Malaysia Solution). Wayne Swan even called Abbott the people smugglers' ''best friend'' for this reason.
Indeed, the asylum seeker debate in this Parliament has been marked by what appears to be a wilful attempt by both sides to inflame the issue. Not only has the Parliament failed to reach a legislative compromise but Labor and the Coalition have been determined to use the most blame-laden language possible.
Perhaps we tend to accept this state of affairs because the issue itself is so thorny and so hard to solve.
But in a week where MPs proved they could do bipartisanship and respect - and that they could play on the same team - it prompts the question: why can't they do that where it really counts?
Judith Ireland is a Fairfax Media journalist.