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Hang time: Government limbo’s not entirely new

Julia Thornton

by Julia Thornton

25 Aug 05:45am

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Filed under: Coalitions, Election 2010, Minority Government, Queensland, Wayne Goss

26 comments

On Friday my daughter turned 2. By the end of the month, she may have had more Prime Ministers in her life than birthdays.

V is for ....

That said, the result on Saturday night was a victory for the people. As much as the two major parties don’t like not knowing if they get the keys to Treasury, this is a great outcome for all Australians.

Throughout Australia, at the state level, we’ve been through this a few times more recently than the last time this happened federally. In Queensland – my most direct experience with hung parliaments – it started in 1995.

How well I remember the days after the Queensland election when the counting went on for two weeks. In Greenslopes it was under a Queenslander, amid the dust and old washing machines.

In the Victory hotel on the corner of Charlotte and Edward Streets, Queensland government ministers sat and had beers with advisers, journalists and public servants ordered to do nothing.

These were the days before mobile phones were really prolific. The Victory became a bit of a feeder hub for information. But mostly it was gossip and speculation.

Meanwhile, the shredders were being burned out in the Ministerial offices as the convention of ‘leave no evidence’ was being followed. Rumour had it in Health alone, they killed two shredders and there were blood splatters on the last one.

Ministerial staff calculated their entitlements and considered the option of buying second hand bookshops or starting a consultancy.

It happened again in 1998 but the independents went to Labor this time.

Queensland survived. Queenslanders still had power, water (this was before the drought affected the water supplies in Brisbane) and jobs.

Every so often, the valve of political frustration is released. In 1995, they were sick of Keating and the infighting between Peter Beattie and Wayne Goss.

In 1998, it was on the right. People who had put their faith in the Liberals and Nationals at the state level, felt they still weren’t being listened to. The rest of the world went ahead meant many people were feeling left by the wayside.

Enter One Nation. We thought it was the end of the world as we knew it. But on Saturday, One Nation was no where to be seen.

The Greens rise is no more permanent than the Democrats’ rise in the 1970s and 1980s. And it would seem the Greens are more polarised on who they are than any new party should expect to be.

Lee Rhiannon is a communist, bent on taking down corporate Australia. Bob Brown is just an old senator who should worry about the new bull from Melbourne. And the fella from Melbourne probably owes a lot to the gay vote.

For such a small number of elected representatives, they will be expected to deliver change on a huge range of issues and because it’s so broad, they won’t be able to deliver.

The strong message coming from the Greens and the conservative independents is they want a better government more committed to government than what we’ve had over the past two or so years.

As for the ALP: if ever a party needed to stop talking and start listening, this is the one.

No matter which way this coin falls, by this time next year, I have no doubt that she will have had three Prime Ministers and three birthdays.

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26 comments

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    • acotrel says:

      07:14am | 25/08/10

      The election result is a clear endorsement of Tony Abbott’s policies?  Now he has a mandate to bring back Workchoices? The Australian public has spoken!

      Reply

    • PaulB says:

      09:06am | 25/08/10

      Workchoices or Labor’s unionized industrial paralysis policies.  Hmmm, what to choose….

    • PG says:

      11:11am | 25/08/10

      Labor Unionised industrial policy Pauly. Work choices is for Bully boys and thugs who think they have a god given right to rob blind people who can’t fight back. You are rightly scared of those who defends workers individual rights— because we know your individual rights to exploit people financially are far less important

    • Eric says:

      03:25pm | 25/08/10

      “Work choices is for Bully boys and thugs who think they have a god given right to rob blind people who can’t fight back.”

      Funny, I thought that was what unions were for.

    • PG says:

      04:24pm | 25/08/10

      Sure Sure Eric there is no stopping women and low paid workers from being nasty brutes ! That what the real “Men” think

    • Eric says:

      06:24pm | 25/08/10

      Dunno where you get those silly ideas from, PG.

      The unions have always been thugs, exemplified by the criminal BLF of years gone by, where “votes” to strike were enforced by big bullies. Masle bullies, for your information.

      Those were the days when many people couldn’t get jobs, because of the union thugs’ “no ticket, no start” policy. And every Christmas the trains and post would stop, and beer would dry up, just to flatter the union leaders’ sense of power.

      You can carry on with your myth-making as much as you like, but the workers have voted with their feet. Union membership is down to around 15% of the workforce, and still sinking fast.

      Real workers know that unionists are just parasites. We have no need of them.

    • Wave Length says:

      08:53am | 25/08/10

      Hanging Five - this is some surf competition.

      Reply

    • TheRealDave says:

      09:21am | 25/08/10

      Ahh the Vic…if I had a beer for every dollar I spent there ...no wait…a dollar for every beer I had there…..something…....great pub that…...

      Reply

    • Julia Thornton says:

      10:00am | 25/08/10

      I should have mentioned that you’d get change from $2 in 1995. I think they cost $1.85. I know that’s how much they cost in 1997.

    • Eric says:

      09:27am | 25/08/10

      Acotrel, that “Workchoices” scare tactic didn’t work during the election, and it’s not about to start working now.

      Reply

    • Ryan says:

      10:18am | 25/08/10

      Hear hear! The overblown ‘work choices’ fear mongering was a useless tactic by Labour and was ridiculous from the very moment they brought out the dead horse to flog.

      Something tells me there will be a great satire of these times written one day.

    • TheRealDave says:

      12:47pm | 25/08/10

      Boogey men in boats still seems to work though wink

      Will we get new fridge magnets for that soon?

    • Nicole says:

      01:26pm | 25/08/10

      Only in your mind Dave.

    • Natz says:

      10:24am | 25/08/10

      A hung parliament? I just want to know when they’ll televise the hangings…

      If there’s one lesson to be lost in all of this is the negative effect of negative advertising and negative messages generally; but we’ll also hear how effective they are from the spin-brokers too. And if there’s another point that made my stomach turn is the hypocrisy of the those who knifed Rudd who were out there blaming the leaks. If there was no assination, there would be no leaks. Haven’t they read Macbeth?

      And Rob Oakshot for compromise-PM; he’s the only one making any sense at the moment… I can’t believe my ears when I hear some ofhte things he’s saying.

      Reply

    • Anjuli says:

      10:55am | 25/08/10

      Why are the union factions in control of the labor party when much of the work force is even in a union,says some thing for their bully boy tactics.

      Reply

    • Natz says:

      02:25pm | 25/08/10

      To question the union’s influence on the Labor party is to show a lack of understanding of its roots, structure and history. It’s like saying ‘Why does your mother still influence the way you think? And how come your Dad drops around when he wants to?’ Without them, it wouldn’t exist.

    • Mirror says:

      02:26pm | 25/08/10

      Why are the business factions in control of the liberal party when much of the work force is even in a business, says something about their bully boy tactics.

    • Lisa says:

      11:49am | 25/08/10

      Workchoices was a policy for go-get-em, collaborative,open-minded world class winners.
      Unionism is for backward-thinking,poor-performing, them-and-us power mongers.

      Reply

    • PG says:

      11:56am | 25/08/10

      Come on Lisa it was just for Lazy business people to get their Margins bigger

    • TheRealDave says:

      12:48pm | 25/08/10

      lol, and 451 Visa’s were a great idea as well that no business would ever try to rort…..

    • Markus says:

      04:39pm | 25/08/10

      Exactly Lisa, Workchoices was a policy that would benefit the 1% of the employable workforce who have a skillset in such high demand and low supply that they could name their own price.
      For the other 99% it was a policy that stacked contract negotiations even more in favour of employers.

    • Sickemrex says:

      03:02pm | 25/08/10

      “As for the ALP: if ever a party needed to stop talking and start listening, this is the one.”

      Insert-applause-smiley-here.  If I was really computer elite I’d put in a link to the VB gold ad where they “shush” each other.  They still just don’t geddit.  They might laugh at climate-change deniers but they are in a whole other denial universe all of their own.

      Reply

    • nosthow says:

      03:24pm | 25/08/10

      Julia i love the way the Independents are now being focused on - everyone of them Katter, Windsor ad Oakshott not only win their seat they bolt it in ! Abbott desparate to become PM is now seeing it all go down the gugler bigtime as he has to dance to the Independents and Greens tune. Pity Warren Truss from the Nationals had the big brain fade on election night and criticised Bob Katter - such is the “depth” of the Abbott led Coalition ! Abbott himself should stand aside now having been clearly defeated in line with failed Liberal leaders of times gone by.

      Reply

    • Markus says:

      04:46pm | 25/08/10

      I just love how the 2 major parties are now putting all the pressure on the Independents through the media, suggesting that the current political situation is entirely unworkable due to these 3 men.

      Perhaps if the 145 Labor and Liberal MPs followed their lead and actually represented their electorate, instead of blindly following party dogma, then Australia would have the Westminster style democracy we are supposed to have, not this corrupt 2-party rubbish we have had to endure for decades.

      Reply

    • Gerard says:

      10:23pm | 25/08/10

      I couldn’t agree more. Labor and coalition MPs love to carry on about how great Australia’s political system is- until the electorate votes for a parliament they don’t like. Then they throw all the toys out of the pram and refuse to govern.

    • moofox says:

      06:40am | 26/08/10

      It is so easy to resolve this hung thing,just close all the roads to canberra,ban the media, ignore them all for 3 years,give the cash to the states,bring home the troops and all of us can just get on with our REAL lives

      Reply
 
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