Quote:AUSTRALIA is more likely to have stable government from an alliance of 76 broadly like-minded MPs than from a rainbow coalition of fractured Laborites, Greens and country conservatives.
Australia is far more likely to get a fresh start from a new government than from a Labor Party that's humble only because it has no choice. Why would the country independents throw a lifeline to a seriously bad government that's just got worse since it executed a democratically elected prime minister?
For all her undoubted political skills, Julia Gillard's actual decisions - to subcontract climate change policy to an unelected assembly, to resurrect a previously promised and dumped railway, and to export the boat people problem to an unwilling East Timor (as well as the disastrous school halls program) - suggest that she would be a worse prime minister than Kevin Rudd.
Nine weeks ago, on the prime minister's own assessment, the government had lost its way. Two weeks ago, it lost its majority and its legitimacy but it still has not lost office and might actually cling to power through ruthless exploitation of incumbency.
Independent and minor party MPs have every right to make their own assessment of the respective merits of the caretaker government and opposition.
Still, if they decide to back Labor - or decide not to decide (which amounts to the same thing) - they will be endorsing factional warlordism, the political execution of an elected prime minister, and the kind of incompetence that produced the roof batts tragedy, the school hall rip-offs and a $43 billion commitment to turning back the clock on telecommunications without even a business plan to justify it.
So far, the caretaker prime minister has won the support of one Green MP and one former Green who is now an independent. The Greens have already changed Labor's climate policy from a 150 person citizens' assembly with no predetermined outcome to a parliamentary committee dedicated to setting a carbon price.
If Labor's mining tax is to pass the Senate, it will have to satisfy the Greens who want it to be much heavier. A mining tax and a carbon tax will be a double whammy hit on the mining industry. A carbon tax will impose big new costs on farmers who are already struggling with low prices and high production costs.
Then there's the Greens' commitment to reducing irrigation and turning at least 30 per cent of Australia's coastal waters into marine parks.
A Labor/Green alliance spells doom for regional Australia's economic base. The slightest move towards Green defence and foreign policies would put the American alliance at risk.
By cutting funding for independent schools, abolishing the private health insurance rebate, and ending offshore processing of illegal boat people it would damage the social fabric too. The prime minister's claim that Labor's policies won't be hostage to the Greens is inconsistent with her promise to give the Greens more access to ministers and public servants than she has afforded to Labor MPs.
Fourteen million Australians have given the Coalition the most seats and the most votes but the election now turns on the decision of just three country independent MPs.
They can opt for the Labor Party, in defiance of the expressed political preference and the economic interests of their own electorates. Or they can opt for the Coalition and form the most country-oriented national government since World War Two. Six members of the Coalition shadow cabinet live in regional areas. No Labor cabinet ministers do. Not one.
If the Gillard government limps on, the waste will continue, the debt will mount, the new taxes will accumulate and the boats will just keep coming. There have been seven boats in the fortnight since the election. International investors will continue to worry about sovereign risk.
The soap opera of leak and counter leak between the supporters of Gillard and Rudd will resume. Buying off potential critics and surrendering to the unions will be the only policy agenda. A government addicted to spin and spending will continue to be all announcement and no delivery because there can be no new politics from an old government.
The alternative under the Coalition is no new taxes, an end to wasteful spending programmes, faster repayment of debt, and strong action to protect our borders. It's genuine parliamentary reform with a parliamentary budget office.
A Coalition government means more spending on economically responsible regional programmes, a standing Green Army to help with landcare projects, a climate change policy that boosts agricultural productivity, a Murray Darling plan which will guarantee food security as well as better environmental flows, locally-run hospitals and schools, and a new compact with indigenous Australia to deliver jobs as well as constitutional recognition.
A Labor Party that was unstable and incompetent when it had a parliamentary majority will go from bad to worse if it has to function as a minority government.
The Coalition is best placed to provide effective government for the next three years and to protect voters from a premature return to the polls.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/why-im-the-one-to-govern/story-e6f...