Enough, Already

There is a bit of historical footage from the first days of the Canberra crisis which has come back to me again and again in recent days.Especially as the horse trading goes on and on and the Three Amigos keep pontificating and the other bit players, like the angry ant and Tony Crook, vie for their moment in the sun. The TV cameras recorded the first meeting between the independents and Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan.
 
Just before Julia Gillard handed out those folders like presents to the Three Wise Men, we saw Wayne Swan -- this country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer -- almost curtsying or genuflecting as he obsequiously shook Bob Katter’s hand.

Add to that the praise that Gillard and Abbott have heaped on these renegades and you have to ask: where do you draw the line?

When does one of these people who will be our next prime minister say:

Enough is enough. Thus far and no further.

When does Gillard or Abbott decide that horse-trading for the top job is demeaning, demeans the office and poisons the chalice?

Or are they of a mindset to follow the Graham Richardson creed: Whatever it takes.

Ordinary voters I talked to over the weekend are saying Abbott should take a gamble. Say to Gillard ‘you can have it. Sell your soul to the Greens and try govern with their agenda. I’ll see you back at the polls in two years.’

Abbott would then probably be assured of those independents seats because  they would revert to the Nationals.

But it would be risky. The voters in Queensland and New South Wales, who took to Labor, with their baseball bats may have vented their anger. The sacking of Kevin Rudd would, by then, be a mere postscript to history and both the unpopular Queensland and New South Wales Labor governments  could be gone.

In his favour he knows that half a million more people voted for the Libs and the Nationals than voted Labor and by then the Greens more radical, and unpopular policies on taxes, and boat people would be better known.
Big gamble…but at some stage  you have to say that nothing more is for sale. Unless just living in The Lodge is more important to you than anything.
 
Footnote:And to add to the Canberra craziness right now..,Lindsay Tanner, the man who quit  the day  Julia Gillard  rolled Kevin Rudd, one of the kitchen cabinet the Gang of Four,  did not stand for re-election. The Labor candidate in the traditional Labor seat got beaten by the Greens ‘ Adam Ant.’

Because of the hung Parliament, Tanner still gets paid as Finance Minister. At $237,704 a year.

I guess that’s one person who hopes the deadlock continues.

Monday, August 30, 2010

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2010