Lashing Out
Posted by sapidblog on 8 September, 2010
After my posting yesterday reflecting upon the previous hung parliament in 1940 I would have thought that the best way for Tony Abbott and the Coalition parties to regain government would have been to demonstrate that they are a credible and responsible alternative government. The Coalition needed to be ready to replace Gillard and the ALP if and when they fall apart through internal divisions. As this was the case with the parties and names switched around in 1940 when Curtin and ALP replaced Faddon and the Coalition.
Instead the current Coalition members fell upon the new government like a pack of rabid dogs:
National Party Senator Ron Boswell accused Tony Windsor of making his decision based on purely on malice: “It must be pay back and there’s no, there’s no secret of the fact that Windsor, since John Anderson did him over in a pre-selection, he’s had a chip on his shoulder for 10 years. ”
This was also picked up by Liberal party member Kevin Andrews: “I don’t think Tony Windsor’s ever gotten over his falling out with the National Party.”
Ron Boswell also accused Rob Oakeshott of acting only out of malice: “Oakeshott has always been a Labor Party person masquerading in National Party clothing and this is why I say the only reason it could be, because it must be payback.”
Liberal Senator George Brandis claimed that the ”government has as much legitimacy as the Pakistani cricket team.”
Liberal representative Joe Hockey said of the new government that it was: “It is a marriage of convenience. The pre-nuptial agreement will not last …. the couple are already arguing and they haven’t even left the wedding chapel.“
Reference source ABC Radio PM: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s3006486.htm
If this is the level of serious debate that we can expect in the next few years then we might will end up with the worse case scenario that I mentioned yesterday: a constitutional crisis precipitated by political grandstanding and gamesmanship, requiring that the Governor-General intervene and use her Reserve Powers. I sure hope not.
Just to set the record correctly: what Ron Boswell and Kevin Anderson seem to be referring to in their comments is reviving bitterness dating back 22 years to 1988 when Tony Windsor first stood for National Party preselection for the Federal seat of Gywdir but lost to John Anderson. Then in 1991 NSW State elections Tony Windsor stood again, this time for the seat of Tamworth, for the National Party, and was the originally the preferred candidate, but was passed-over when allegations of drink-driving surfaced on the day of preselection. He stood as an independent and won the seat to became one of three independents holding the balance of power in a hung Legislative Assembly. After serving in the NSW Legislative Assembly until 1999 Tony Windsor then moved to Federal politics in his current seat of New England, which he first won in 2001 (but only after sparring with John Anderson about contesting the neighbouring seat of Gywdir against him as an independent). In 2004 bitterness re-emerged when Tony Windsor accused John Anderson of being involved in illegally offering him a bribe for him to resign his seat of New England in exchange for a diplomatic posting.
Discussing politics in Sapidblog is giving me a headache. I’m going to quit discussing politics for a while.
