And so a decision has been made. Australia’s next federal government will be a rainbow alliance of reddish Labor, green Greens and three independents of unknown but varied hue. Sounds unworkable? Superficially, yes. But only if you look at politics with an Australian perspective. In fact this new arrangement promises to give local politics a much needed kick up the proverbial.
The best thing about this new set up is that parliament should become relevant again. It will return to something approaching its original purpose.
Parliament is supposed to be a house of debate. The word ‘parliament’ has its origins in the French verb parler, meaning ‘to speak’, and its Old French derivative parlement, meaning ‘talk, consultation, conference’.
Does anyone in Australia remember a time when our parliament represented words like these? Hardly. Shouting match, spinning room, house of mumbo jumbo—maybe. But not consultation or conference.
For years now, all political decision making has happened behind closed doors. No matter which party was in government, it was in the party room, or some variation thereof, that the real debate happened. More recently debate has been further stifled as focus groups of disinterested swinging voters became the primary influencers of policy. Parliament has become irrelevant for anything other than posturing.
Now, no one is suggesting that the back-room stuff is going to disappear. There will be plenty of debate in the corridors and in the offices, though most of this will still happen within the parliament, if not in the chambers. Either way, there will be debate. Those trying to get legislation through will need to convince those on the cross-benches that the legislation has a purpose and that its design will meet that purpose. Forcing through poorly designed laws for knee-jerk reasons should become a thing of the past.
Will this slow things down? Probably. Hopefully. There are few easy answers in this world. There are few situations where hurried, idealogical decision making of a national nature can be justified. Tossing around options, debating them and choosing what seems the best, most reasoned approach—this should be the default approach.
A great many parliaments around the world operate with uneasy alliances at the helm. Some work better than others, of course, but then the same applies to majority governments. It’s going to be an interesting three years.
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