Moving into deeply troubled waters under a dysfunctional government can only end in tears.
When the NSW ALP administration was on the rocks a couple of years out from the next election I half-jokingly suggested a government of unity, so the best people on each side of the house could pool their talents and get serious about the real isues, as opposed to the daily pointscoring while the great state of NSW went downhill into a massive hole of debt and corruption. For example the leader of the then Opposition put the last nail in the coffin of profitable privatisation of power. John Robertson, the current Opposition leader of course was the chief villain in that debacle that went back to the Carr administration.
Quite unrealistic of course, [it was suggested during WW2 but Curtin rejected the offer in order to run the contest on party lines] but what if the adults in the House could get together, sideline the most useless of the timeservers, starting with the PM, Treasurer and the AG… [OK, most of the Cabinet] and try to address the real issues. Debt, red and green tape, the Fair Work Act, Freedom of speech…
PS Out of town for a week feeding chooks and helping a friend recovering from a hip replacement. May not be posting regularly (no NBN there yet).
I have often thought that the country might already be run by a Bi-partisan committee, with both Lab and Lib agreeing on some things, and arguing out the differences in ‘Showtime’, a.k.a. Parliament. If I ever write about a future Australia, it would have a centralist Bi-partisan alliance, with extremist independents of left and right voting as conscience dictates, with the Evergreens as the leftoids, and the National Patriots as the righteous group!
Nuke Gray
11 Oct 12 at 9:28 am
Ah, a joke thread. How refreshing.
m0nty
11 Oct 12 at 9:42 am
No. If you want to see what broad-based governments spanning across the political spectrum look like, then take a look at Europe.
In places like Belgium, Netherlands etc. the government is formed from broad coalitions consisting of most of the major parties. These parties, instead of agitating for reform, become advocates for the status quo and see their major goal as getting their greedy hands in the government till.
Worse, it doesn’t matter how the public vote as regardless of which party “wins” the election – as a result of the coalition formation process the same old people end up in the government.
I like our adversarial system despite its obvious flaws. At least one of the two parties has an incentive to oppose the government’s policies which is a good thing. More importantly it allows the people to throw out the government.
Matt
11 Oct 12 at 9:46 am
Rafe, I think the current Federal parliament has shown us that there is nothing beautiful in a political mixed marriage, it is all ugly, ruled by ego and based on lies.
What you wish for is for leaders of high moral standard (that they put their egos behind them for the common good) but these leaders arose infrequently in our past and the likelihood of a bunch of them rising to the top of the pond scum to save NCW is remote.
Nothing lasts for ever. It all has to crash and burn to rise phoenix like from the ashes born anew with no baggage of yesterday. NSW, dare I say Australia and other countries are going through this very cycle.
Enjoy taking to the chooks and, if one of them is red, please do not insult her by naming her Julia. You know – pointy nose and well feathered behind …
Helen Armstrong
11 Oct 12 at 9:46 am
Here, here. A government of National Unity means the voters have no where to go to express their anger except the ends of the political spectrum.
Token
11 Oct 12 at 9:51 am
All the country needs is an election. And the only reason we haven’t had one is that from the moment Gillard sat down and formed government with the unrepresentative Greens and gave them a carbon tax in violation of a direct representation to voters prior to the election, she hasn’t ever got close to having them.
The Old Lezzo said as much when he said Abbott would go back to the voters as soon as he thought he had the numbers, omitting to say that he would be out of a job as a result. Since then the Old Lezzo done whatever is required to prop up this inept government – as was demonstrated in the Slipper vote.
Unfortunately democracy takes time. As NSW and Queensland show you get there in the end.
H B Bear
11 Oct 12 at 10:05 am
Absolutely not.
This is just a restatement of Plato’s Republic, government by the wisest of technocrats.
It sidelines the taxpayer, sidelines the voter, and sidelines the democratic process itself. That, after the first generation of wise men retire, it allows in the venal, the corrupt and the power hungry with no means of removing them is a feature, not a bug.
Give me confrontational politics any day over this abrogation of the individual.
CountingCats
11 Oct 12 at 10:13 am
I would have to join the extreme right way out wing nut job party, because no way would I support anybody sitting at the same table with Gillard and Swan, not to mention the odious independents. No way, wouldnt touch the Labor front bench with a barge pole.
Jannie
11 Oct 12 at 10:34 am
If you are going to sideline the PM, Treasurer, the AG and most of the Cabinet, then that’s a change of government and governments should be changed by an election, not by forming a new coalition.
Australia has suffered this problem in the past (Victoria with Kirner, NSW with Keneally and Qld with Bligh. All female Premiers and all ALP Premiers. That’s interesting
) It is all part of the democratic process.
If you want a mechanism to bring on an early election, then ask yourself, what kind of mechanism would you be prepared to support if it was used against a government that you supported. For example, under what conditions would be prepared to support a left wing GG sacking a Coalition government?
Democracy. It’s the worse form of government, expect for all of the others that have been tried.
Johno
11 Oct 12 at 10:53 am
The right to recall would have solved this mess before it started.
Require 60% support for a recall election in the electorate. Windsor and Oakeshotte would have been recalled and fired within weeks of their betrayal.
In fact they never would have betrayed their communities in the first place because the threat of recall would have prevented them from doing so.
twostix
11 Oct 12 at 11:01 am
I’m a big fan of recalls, two six, and the current mess we are in illustrates why it is needed. It could also be applied to Thomson and Slipper. A good way of removing those who no longer deserve to sit in the Parliament.
Johno
11 Oct 12 at 11:47 am
Most American states have recall elections.
It is LDP policy, and I think best for Australia if we had recall and referendum to strike down laws bit not initiative to write them.
The public ought to act as a second senate and governor general.
You could also remove judges. The independence of the judiciary from the executive would be maintained.
.
11 Oct 12 at 11:50 am
OK, someone call the cops. It is clear after yesterday’s and today’s threads, Rafe has been abducted by the Steves and they have assumed his identity. Either that or someone’s got photos of Rafe in a compromising pose with clammygar.
Skuter
11 Oct 12 at 12:02 pm
Rafe, this current hung parliament is basically exactly what you are proposing; a joint team of ideologically-opposed individuals with no clear majority where only truly bipartisan non-issues (like the much-hyped “400 bills” including changes to national parks administration and the like) get readily passed.
Similar to Matt, above, it’s a mixture of status quo on most stuff but also b*tch fights on anything that actually matters.
Election.
DMS
11 Oct 12 at 12:08 pm
Also, “feeding the chooks” was a bit nudge-nudge, wink-wink as a term where I grew up.
DMS
11 Oct 12 at 12:13 pm
LOL yes, re different meaning, but he did say it was for a week, and not even Rafe could sustain that kind of bender!
Helen Armstrong
11 Oct 12 at 1:14 pm
No. You can’t have “Governments of National Unity” Rafe…. otherwise you end up like China. They have a “Government of National Unity”. That’s what it looks like…. and in the long run, it is also as unstable and dangerous as hell.
Partisan politics is the only way…. Everyone is then forced to have the conversation… Whatever that conversation may be or however distasteful it is.
J.Hansford
11 Oct 12 at 2:18 pm
Rafe, please, DO NOT FEED THE PIGS when you are farming, unless from way outside the pen.
Helen Armstrong
11 Oct 12 at 3:34 pm
No Rafe! It won’t work. If I was in Parliament now, I couldn’t bear to be within cooee of the independents, let alone that the handbag hit squad.
Hubert East
11 Oct 12 at 4:34 pm
It’s a lovely idea, Rafe, but the trouble is there is so close to ZERO talent or moral fibre in the current government, you might as well sweep it all away and just have the Coalition running things as they did last time – not perfectly by any means, but at least competently.
perturbed
11 Oct 12 at 9:42 pm