If Australia ends up with a hung Parliament - now a distinct possibility based on the published polls - the country's future will rest with three men that virtually no-one voted for.

Bob Katter, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor are all ex-National Party members who sit in the House of Representatives on the crossbenches as independents. If either side of politics falls just short of the 74 seats needed to form government on Saturday, they will have to form a coalition with the independents if they are to convince Governor-General Quentin Bryce that they can command the numbers on the floor of the Parliament.

Until now the voices of Windsor, Oakeshott and Katter have not mattered. Come Saturday they could be crucial to the future of the country. So what would be their price for supporting either a minority Liberal-National Party government or a Labor government?

The Drum has interviewed all three and asked them how they would approach a hung Parliament and the colour of the major parties' money they would want to see in return for their vote.

The picture that emerges is startlingly different to the future outlined by both major parties during the election campaign. Depending on who wins the most seats in a hung Parliament Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott will have to ditch their commitment to cut immigration, wind back free market policies across the board and pour money into regional health services if they want to become Prime Minister with cross bench support.

In the case of Tony Abbott, he will have to abandon his promised wind-back of Labor's National Broadband Network (NBN) and dramatically upgrade the countries connectivity - particularly in the regions. All of which will throw into jeopardy the Coalition's commitment to reduce public debt. Why? Because Abbott has used the $42 billion budgeted by Labor for the NBN as savings to fund almost all of his election spending promises.

In other words the idea of any coalition Government based on the support of the independents will fundamentally re-cast the big picture of how Australia will look over the next decade. And that's only with three cross benchers. There's also the complicating possibility that the Greens could win former Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner's inner city seat of Melbourne.

And Tony Windsor tells the Drum that independent candidates in the regional seats of Farrer, Parkes, Calare and Wannon could all get up, with John Clements in Parkes the best chance.

The good news for the country is that Windsor, Katter and Oakeshott are all experienced parliamentarians. Windsor and Katter have both been part of minority state governments, Windsor in NSW and Katter in Queensland. Oakeshott, before he won former Federal Nationals Leader, Mark Vaile's seat at a 2008 by-election was considered a state leadership prospect in his own right.

That means they will be tough-minded - but critically realistic as well - in their negotiations with the major parties. Thankfully none of them represent the loony tune fringes of Australian politics.

The first idea that needs to be laid to rest is that because they are all former National Party members their natural predisposition will be to will be to support a Liberal-National Party government. In all three cases the divorce with their previous party was difficult if not bitter.

While they do not agree on every policy front, the trio have already spoken about the prospect of a hung Parliament and decided on an "all for one and one for all" approach. That means the three musketeers of Australian politics will immediately meet and go into what they describe as "lockdown" to decide what demands they will make of the major parties.

That "lockdown" they say will also automatically include any other independents elected on August 21.

The first criteria they will adopt as the price of their backing will be that the major parties assure them of "stability" in any minority government. Given the murky dispatch of Kevin Rudd this could include both party rooms agreeing in writing that Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard will be guaranteed at least one term as Prime Minister - regardless of what the opinion polls say.

When it comes to economic policy the independents are broadly "developmentalist" rather than "rationalist" in descending order; Katter, Windsor and then Oakeshott.

Katter in particular believes in old style "agrarian socialism"- big government intervention to protect what he sees as threatened industries such as dairy and banana growing. That intervention extends to direct trade protection from globalisation.

"We're getting skinned alive," Katter, whose vast seat of Kennedy takes in much of far north Queensland, tells The Drum.

"We have agreed, the three independents, that if we each get re-elected and are in a balance of power situation, we will close the door and go into lockdown and decide what we are going to do.

"Throughout Kennedy we have already got a long shopping list of burning issues - stopping banana, beef and other primary produce imports; bring back agricultural subsidies and tariffs; reducing the cost of living; breaking up the supermarket duopoly; and cutting the power of government to, at a whim, introduce and increase all sorts of fees and charges and take away our freedoms and rights.

"The second class treatment of regional Australia cannot continue - we're not going to sit back a watch the slow and remorseless demise of regional Australia, our industries and our jobs," he said.

"With Tony and Rob, I intended to work with Parliament, hung or otherwise, to deliver specific and real outcomes for regional Australia."

For all three, that commitment to regional Australia includes as a top priority improved broadband services and hospital and medical facilities. Windsor in particular links the broadband issue to the sustainability of cities. In other words congested cities will only remain viable if population is spread to the regions. And this will only happen through greater connectivity.

Windsor and Katter are also adamant that the regions need more people, full stop. Which means continued high rates of immigration. Katter is graphic on this point telling the ABC's Lateline: " I mean, if you drop a series of hydrogen bombs from the back of Cairns, the other side of Mareeba, 30 kilometres from Cairns, all the way across to Broome, you won't kill anybody. There's nobody living there."

Windsor points to the absurdity of the population debate being pitched only to voters in Western Sydney when regional Australia is suffering from a population drain.

Whatever the outcome of the negotiations with the major parties expect the voters of Kennedy, Lyne (Oakeshott) and New England (Windsor) to have a disproportionate say in the direction Australia goes under a minority government

Windsor insists the view of his electorate will be paramount:"I'll be looking at the preference votes in the New England electorate as to which major party was preferred by voters who voted for me," he says.

Katter and Oakeshott are likely to run the same rule over their electorates. Also important to all three will be which party receives the overall majority of votes - as distinct from seats - on Saturday. This is an important distinction. On this measure, at the 2001 election, Kim Beazley would have been prime minister rather than John Howard.

"Whatever happens," says Windsor, "the advent of a hung parliament will be a positive for regional Australia."

Oakeshott tells The Drum: "Nobody should take anybody's vote for granted in 11 days time.

"Because every MP, not just the cross-benches, will have increased power and authority over the Executive. "

Oakeshott explicitly warns the major parties that he won't tolerate capricious changes in leadership on the basis of the opinion polls: "Stability in Government is important," he says.

"Over the past six months, we have seen leadership changes on both sides, and poll-driven policy back flips from both sides like never before. This is not good enough, and provides no direction to anyone - business or community.

"With 68 years of public life shared amongst the three independent MP's, you don't have to be Einstein to recognise that stability of representation will be a core value and focus that will be sought from the next three year Parliament if the political parties do not have a clear majority."

Oakeshott also nominates revisiting major reform blueprints such as the Henry Tax Review and the Garnaut Report on climate change and a carbon price as key benchmarks.

"Many time-consuming and resource-intense reports were left behind," he says of Labor's first term in office.

"The Henry Tax Review recommendations and the Garnaut Report are just two examples where the Parliament under-whelmed Australia in its ability to deliver. Again, we can do better, and I will be looking for who is serious about delivering outcomes."

A hung Parliament will therefore be an historic event; a parliament where for the first time in living memory the power of the Executive - in the form of the prime minister and the Cabinet - will be subject to the will of the House.

The three political musketeers will become king makers. It's a plot worthy of Alexandre Dumas.

Glenn Milne has been covering Canberra politics for more than two decades. He was a delegate to the current American Australian Leadership Dialogue.