By Alex Schlotzer:
Well apparently we’re in turmoil because of the outcome from the weekend’s federal election. There’s already been a lot of talk about the discussions happening to arrange further discussions, once the final result is known. And according to the great people at the Australian Electoral Commission, there could still be another few days before all of the ballots have been counted and the preferences allocated.
There are still some seats in the mix for either Labor or the Coalition with the pre-polls and postal ballots showing a see-saw effect in some of these very, very marginal seats. In some seats we’re talking about as few as a 50 votes.
There’s all sorts of different scenarios that can be the final result, with negotiations about who will form a minority government.
A lot of media attention is focusing on what they’ll want in exchange for either party being given the opportunity to form minority government, despite the efforts of the independents and the Greens MP to say they haven’t started getting to such considerations. Indeed when you look at what they have been saying since Sunday, they continue to repeat the same kinds of themes. Each wants to be able to help form a stable minority government, and each wants to ensure that any minority government is able to see its term through to the next general election. Each wants to see the national broadband network rolled out and more attention on infrastructure and services for regional, rural and remote Australia.
However on a range of other issues there’s very little that binds them. But how much of these things will really be included in the mix of discussions and negotiations? Interestingly enough though is the lack of attention on how far either Labor or the Coalition are prepared to incorporate the desires of the ‘king-makers’.
The recent calls for a change to the way politics is done, sounds more like red-herrings than anything legitimate. However, these calls have been given legitimacy, which could have lead to Oakeshott’s calls to consider cross-party representation on the Executive and government benches. Independent MP, Rob Oakeshott is advocating, a Frankenstein’s monster kind of government with a Labor/Coalition arrangement.
Somehow this is being seen as advocating a new kind of politics, and a maturing of our parliamentary system.
Until there is great clarity about the final make up of the parliament any discussion about the likely negotiations are pretty mute. But then it’s a lot of fun to speculate about the future of the parliament.
The result from the weekend is a political geek’s wet dream.
Share on FacebookAlex Schlotzer is a straight talker when it comes to politics and loves to vent his spleen. Actively involved in Australian and international politics with a keen understanding of the dynamics of the political machine, Alex has a prolific online presence and has been a cyber activist for over 15 years. Regional editor of theangle.org, he can also be found at his blog and his exciting online project Australian Politics TV
