While counting for some seats continues, Australians have
voted a conservative Liberal / National Coalition government into power.
Australia now has a Cabinet
of twenty that includes only one woman and no Ministries for Science, Housing,
Disability, Youth, Climate Change, Energy or Status of Women.
The aid budget has been cut
by $4.5 billion and the aid agency will be collapsed into the Foreign Affairs
Department.
The new Defence Minister chose International Day of Peace to announce an intended $35b spend over the next ten years and that he wants to keep the military battle ready, concerned that with the draw down in Afghanistan, "we've got to maintain some interest for the troops. They've got to keep training, got to keep a level of readiness."
The Climate Commission that provided independent expert advice to government has been abolished. Legislation is being drafted to abolish Australia's price on carbon, which has been effective in reducing emissions. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation, established to ensure Australia benefits from the renewable energy boom, has been put on notice to stop investing its $10b into Australian manufacturing and industry.
In a campaign dominated by fear of an invasion of Australia by refugees (when
the country is ranked 69th by the UNHCR for per capita refugee intake), Mr.
Abbott promised to "stop
the boats." Several boat loads of people fleeing conflicts and
persecution have arrived since he became Prime Minister, but the new policy of
the Customs and Border protection not disclosing boat arrivals would appear to
be more a case of "hide the boats." The title of Immigration Minister now includes 'and Border
Security' and is charged with 'turning back the boats', a policy that places
our relationship with Indonesia at grave risk and increases the likelihood that
the UN will soon find Australia violating
yet another 150 breaches of international refugee law. Asylum seekers
will be kept indefinitely in offshore detention, and will not have no right to
appeal and legal assistance to some has been withdrawn.
All this, and more, in just sixteen days
The burning question in Australia now is whether the
government will be able to achieve its legislative agenda, given the Senate
will be hostile to it with a Labor and Green majority until at least July 2014.
(The Australian Senate sits for fixed terms, changing over on 1 July.)
The government claims that it has a mandate to take the actions listed above
and that other parties should ignore the mandate given to them by voters on
different policy platforms. While the Electoral Commission is still
counting some lower house seats, the new government needed 76 seats to win
government and looks to have 91, leaving the Labor party with 55 seats, the
Greens maintaining the party's first toe hold in the lower house and 3
independents joining Adam Bandt MP on the cross benches.
Running a campaign largely on three word slogans and forbidding
most candidates to participate in public forums, the new government did
not release the detail of its policies and costings until after the media
advertising black out 48 hours before election day. In addition, it
submitted zero
of its policies for costings by the independent Parliamentary Budget
Office, while the Greens submitted 84 and the Labor party 79 in order to
explain precisely what was proposed and how it would be paid for.
Some Coalition policies were reversed even within that 48 hour period, such as the proposal to filter the internet, which the responsible shadow Minister at first defended, but after a 4 hour online campaign, described it as 'poorly worded' with a new version appearing as if by magic.
The current Senate will prove a problem
to the Abbott government. It will be prevented at least from delivering on abolishing the
carbon tax, his first item of parliamentary business. Should the Senate
twice reject that legislation, the trigger for a Double Dissolution of both
houses of parliament, Australians will be sent back to the polls.
It is also possible that Abbott will bide his time until July 2014 when he will
have a majority at least on climate questions, if Senators representing new
parties are elected, such as the Sports Party, which looks likely to pick up a
Senate seat in Western Australia with 2790 primary votes, or the new Palmer
United Party, invented by billionaire Clive Palmer who may put a Senator
Lazarus from Queensland into the mix, or the Sex Party who may win in Tasmania,
and the Motoring Enthusiasts Party who may win a Victorian Senate seat.
The weary workers of the Australian Electoral Commission are getting through around 2% of the Senate count per day. While it's shredding the nerves of many, they can hardly be blamed given the unprecedented number of parties running in this election, some of them created specifically to exploit Australia's preferencing system.
In some states the Senate ballot paper was a metre long and contained up to 104 boxes. Voters have the option of simply placing a 1 'above the line' for their party of choice which will apply that party's preference deal, or voting 'below the line', placing a number in each box. It is the latter, as well as postal votes, that occupy the Electoral Commission and which cause many of us to risk RSI refreshing their web pages.
While Rupert Murdoch praised PM Abbott on a "Great first day ... firing top bureaucrats, merging departments and killing carbon tax," he added to his Tweet, "Much more to do yet." It's going to be a long three years.
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Felicity Ruby is an adviser to Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam. These views are her own and not that of the Senator, or the Australian Greens.
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