By Alex Schlotzer:
If there has been one noticeable outcome from the first hung Parliament since World War 2, it has been that the Liberals cannot cope with a situation where they have to negotiate for ‘power’.
More’s to the point, the necessary negotiations with independents who now hold the balance of power, are revealing the Liberal Party’s strong arm modus operandi.
The so-called rogue elements of the party may be described by Liberal leadership as “out of character,” however a quick look at the personalities involved shows the sometime bizarre behaviour is not so unusual. The Leader of the Opposition was himself a former bomb thrower and notorious hitman in his own party under the Howard administration and any talk of a gentler Australian politics remains pure posturing from Abbott.
For form one has only to think about (the former) Member for O’Connor, Wilson ‘Iron Bar’ Tuckey, who was defeated by WA Nationals’ Tony Crook last week. During a long career Mr Tuckey became famous for gaffes and ridiculous accusations, the last being that the Labor Government was responsible for the deaths of a number of mining executives in a plane crash in Africa because of the mining tax introduced by Kevin Rudd. At the time of his departure from Parliament, Ironbar had offended almost everyone including many in his own party. Would-be Treasurer Joe Hockey described him as as “a mad uncle.”
But what is really being revealed is the way in which the Opposition’s factions and operatives operate. Back room operatives Bill (“its the devil”) Heffernan and Alby Schultz have illustrated their preferred style of negotiations is to use stand over tactics – the very same tactics the Liberals have accused Labor of using.
Abbott has dismissed the heavying of independents as just mates having a chat however the language of ‘friends’ having a conversation is hardly the case. The Liberals prefer to operate in a more clandestine way and manage to keep their affairs more private. This form of operation is revealed in John Hyde Page’s wonderful expose of the Liberals; “The Education of a Young Liberal”. Page reveals that the Liberal Party operates along factional lines, just like the Labor Party – remember the terms wet and dry Liberals?
However, this doesn’t explain the kind of terrible behaviour on display over the past week. Clearly Tony Abbott isn’t happy about the situation but will apologies for the ham fisted approach be enough? Perhaps it’s a good thing that ‘Iron Bar’ Tuckey didn’t make it across the line given his own propensity to suffer foot-in-mouth disease.
Yet one has to wonder about the likelihood of the independents aligning themselves with the Coalition in the first place. There has been little public evidence that the Liberals are prepared to commit much to their requests for information and cooperation from the Liberals. It was only on Monday (30/08/10) that Abbott agreed to allow the independents access to the Treasury-costed policies, as long as the results weren’t revealed to the government. This was something the Opposition had refused to do during the entire campaign.
There is also the fact that aside from Andrew Wilkie (IND- Denison), the others are maligned former Nationals. And we can’t forget the often noted peculiarity of Mr Crook, the WA Nationals; a separate and arguably more ‘militant’ version of the softened national ‘Nationals’ brand. Like Crook’s state counterparts, there’s no guarantee that he’ll deliver support for the Liberals or the Nationals, although Prime Minister’s Gillard pledge to continue with the controversial mining tax means he’s more than likely to support the Coalition.
If that isn’t enough the Liberal National Party of Queensland is hardly the most stable political party. There are problems within the party as the former divides between the Queensland Liberals and Nationals remain unresolved. So for Tony Abbott there are not only structural problems but residual difficulties in the differences that remain between the Liberals and Nationals to ensure his own coalition remains together.
With the negotiations and counting continuing, these kinds of displays of what life would be like for the independents, if they align themselves with the Liberals, can’t be good for negotiations. It would appear to make the ALP’s case to form minority government all that much stronger.
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.
[...] The so-called rogue elements of the party may be described by Liberal leadership as “out of character,” however a quick look at the personalities involved shows the sometime bizarre behaviour is not so unusual. The Leader of the Opposition was himself a former bomb thrower and notorious hitman in his own party under the Howard administration and any talk of a gentler Australian politics remains pure posturing from Abbott. Read the rest of the post… [...]