The Israeli political system is far from stable. Robustly democratic sure.
But since the advent of proportional voting for the Israeli Parliament - the Knesset - it has seen a revolving door of governments between Labor, the Likud and now Kadima, all having to govern in coalition with minor parties.
Some would say that Israeli politicians and the Israeli public would wish for the stability that our voting system has delivered for a hundred years – but would they?
This may well be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’.
Because of the instability of the votes in the Knesset the government of Ehud Olmert failed to have their Budget passed by the Parliament for 2008-09.
That means that the government spending does not even include the one and three quarters per cent increase in spending envisaged in the Budget that was presented and not agreed to.
Why is this interesting? Because it means that Israel has not had a stimulus package to meet the international financial crisis of the last eight months.
Unlike Australia ,the Israeli Government has not been able to go further into debt and deficit.
Ironically, the Israeli economy, while it has suffered along with all market economies, has not spiralled downwards in the absence of a stimulus package.
The Israeli Government will emerge from the international downturn in about the same debt and deficit position it was before, unlike the Australia of the Rudd Government, which will emerge at least $315 billion in debt and with at least a $57.6 billion budget deficit!
Mr Rudd and Mr Swan have told us that without the government’s cash splash spending spree the Australian economy would be in freefall.
Like henny penny they have been racing around Australia crying that the sky would fall in if they didn’t use hard earned tax payer dollars to pay deceased estates, the canine and feline
beneficiaries of estates and five hundred thousand overseas workers.
How foolish they mush think the Australian people have become. The Australian voter can smell waste and mismanagement by government.
They want value for money when it comes to spending their money. The school stimulus debacle is just one example of where the Rudd Government is blasé about how it spends other people’s money.
If it wasn’t so serious, it would be a laughing matter that the very instability of the Israeli political landscape will save them from extra debt and deficit and the very stability of ours will consign the sound economic situation in which the Howard Government left Australia to history while future generations pay the price for Labor’s mismanagement.
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