To gain a majority both sides are wooing the three or four independents to form a majority. Whoever gets the majority will be crippled to a considerable extent when legislating without a clear majority. The demonstrated whims and idiosyncracies of the independents have to be taken into account. This is not a good thing for our country. The best thing to hope for is a re-election. It's possible, but unlikely it will happen.
This opinion from Piers Akerman published in the Sydney Daily Telegraph (Sat, Aug 28) says it all:
"The slow vote count has ensured Australia faces a second week of governmental limbo.
With the score so far at 73 Coalition seats to 72 for Labor, the increasingly pathetic antics of the over-reaching independents should be treated as a distraction until the votes are finally tallied.
Striving for importance, posturing as profound statesmen, the so-called Three Amigos, Bob Katter, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, have all been put in the shade by Andrew Wilkie who appears to have more principle in his little toe than the others can jointly muster.
Caretaker prime minister Julia Gillard has well and truly prostituted Labor with her premature leap to satisfy whatever demands the independents are making.
She has gone well beyond tugging the forelock in a manner quite unbefitting the dignity of the holder of the top office in the land and shamelessly trailed her coat to a group who represent an exceedingly small percentage of the nation as she tries to rescue whatever is possible from what was undeniably a disastrous election from her point of view.
Opening the door to the possibility of a Labor-Greens alliance as posited by Greens leader Bob Brown last Thursday demonstrates the measure of her desperation.
Two polls in each of the seats of Kennedy, Lyne and New England (Katter’s, Oakeshott’s and Windsor’s) taken in the past week have shown that the voters in these electorates overwhelmingly support the Coalition.
With the Coalition and Labor at last count likely to hold 73 seats each and the Greens’ flaky Adam Bandt, who won Melbourne, already committed to supporting Labor, the three independents holding the balance of power would seem to have no choice but to support the Coalition if they honestly wish to reflect the views of their constituents.
If they succumb to Gillard’s flattery and wish to play footsie with the ALP they should be prepared to endure the revulsion of those who have shown them support - for little return - over the years.
They would be seen to be endorsing the worst two governments in the history of the nation (Kevin Rudd’s and Gillard’s), they would be seen to be embracing the most appalling political machine the nation has experienced, and they would be endorsing the suppurating factionalism that has riven Labor.
In what can only be an endeavour to swing the media and public support her way, Gillard is to address the National Press Club on Tuesday, according to the NPC’s website, but she has not yet been able to address the remnants of her own party, let alone conduct a post mortem into Labor’s disastrous campaign.
The appeal to the nation may be an attempt to wedge the independents, but it will not serve as an answer to long-serving ALP members who want to know why the hollow men, the faceless men, the backroom boys, were allowed to trample and dismiss elected leaders in NSW such as Morris Iemma, and, nationally, Rudd.
But perhaps the press club date was proposed by someone who wishes to see Gillard undermined, one of the plotters within the ALP who would like to see this train wreck pushed off the rails and forgotten, because it’s unlikely that Gillard will escape questioning on the election, which will expose her flaws, and about such issues as the Murray-Darling, which will exacerbate the difficulties of further negotiations with the independents.
Gillard went to the election without nominating who would be the finance minister in any new Labor administration, who would be defence minister or what position Rudd would be given in return for his silence and an end to the leaks against Gillard during the election campaign.
The nation is none the wiser - but it does know that Gillard would not rule out giving a Green a position in her cabinet if that would buy her government.
The independents considering their decision should ponder what such an appointment would mean: A certain mining tax, even the possibility of a formal merger between the Greens and Labor, with an assumption that many of the Greens’ lunatic demands, such as the dole for all and the legalisation of illicit drugs, would be legislated.
To his credit, Opposition leader Tony Abbott has been cautious about destroying the caretaker conventions which apply while the government is in limbo. He has shown an appreciation for the political system which Gillard is prepared to ignore.
There is a well-run argument that it’s better to form a government, any government, than be in opposition; Abbott has thus far shown an admirable unwillingness to accept this.
The current demands from the independents for information, much of it available during the course of the election campaign, reflects their disappointing indifference to their jobs.
The bloc’s most mature member, Windsor, served 10 years in the NSW parliament and has spent nine years in Canberra.
Katter had eight years in the Queensland parliament and has been in Canberra since 1993. Oakeshott served 12 years as a NSW MP before going federal two years ago.
They have neither adorned nor disgraced the federal parliament, but they have not contributed anything of note.
Now they are united in their belief in stability in government. How admirable.
But they are making their pitch to a party riven with poisonous divisions at every level.
As they watch Labor audition before them, are they asking the same questions the nation asked just over a week ago?
Are they asking about the improbable cash-for-clunkers car recycling scheme that was proposed, the laughable citizens assembly talkfest on climate change, the failed insulation or wasteful BER programs, or will they suspend disbelief and rubber-stamp the nation’s most mendacious ever administration?
Will they ask Gillard about the damage the mining tax will do the economy?
After epic-level waste and confidence-destroying policies made up on the run by a government controlled by spin merchants, as Labor’s own heroes admit, the nation cannot afford to be delivered into the hands of those who would welcome a new collectivist dark age."
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