A CONVENIENT COALITION

And so we have a coalition trying to form a government. Not the Coalition led by Tony Abbott and his Liberals and Nationals but a loose coalition between Labor and The Greens.The Greens see it as a sort of Scandinavian-type government with Australia, I guess, the new Sweden. In fairness, the deal gives Julia Gillard the semblance of the ‘stable and effective Government’ she is touting to the Three Amigos.

Bob Brown says the deal means that ‘The Greens will ensure Supply and oppose any motions of no confidence in the government from other parties or MPs’.

In return Julia Gillard gets the vote of the Lower House Green Adam Bandt—but Labor would have got that anyway. And that takes the Prime Minister to 73 votes. Andrew Wilkie, who stood against John Howard in Bennelong as a Green in 2004, must surely still be pencilled in to the Labor column despite his wish list.

Out west the independent national can be added to the Libs and it comes back again to the Three Amigos. Or Three Egos as I’m starting to call them.

But back to the Labor-Greens pact. How can it work. Sure they agree on a carbon tax. But not the size of it. And they agree on a  mining tax but not the size of it.

On boat people Bob Brown and his team have a much softer policy than the one embraced with Julia Gillard in a bid to dilute Abbott and his Stop the Boats campaign.

On gay marriage The Greens want a conscience vote. Neither Labor nor the Coalition agree with him on that. Julia Gillard said during the campaign that the opposition to gay marriage was not only her government’s policy but her personal view. And Abbott once said he felt ‘threatened’ by homosexuals.

Still, the agreement calls for Prime Minister Gillard ( if she gets there) to hold a weekly meeting with Brown and Bandt but there won’t be a Green in Cabinet.

One of the first things to go is Gillard’s much scoffed at Citizen’s Assembly she bravely championed during the election. It will be replaced by a ‘climate change committee’ of like-minded politicians and some outside experts.

What it means is that the alliance will pull the Labor Party further Left—although they’ll never get to where the Greens are. And how will the Right Wing powerbrokers feel about that? And this whole marriage of convenience?

On Q and A recently when he was asked about a Labor/Greens coalition Graham ‘whatever it takes’ Richardson said: ‘over my dead body’.

But, when your chance of getting into The Lodge relies on some very strange bedfellows then whatever it takes… is whatever it takes.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2010