Garrett Not Only One Who is Accountable to Voters

While Peter Garrett is under siege over insulationgate, we can only hope that those who are baying for blood will remember their concerns next time that Occupational Health & Safety on the political agenda.

The level of noise in parliament seems to be drowning out the blocking of the Youth Allowance and the Medicare Rebate bills. Nick Xenophon’s lame defence of his no-vote on the latter, yesterday on ABC Breakfast, was appalling. Seems that the conservatives will staunchly defend upper-middle-class welfare to the end.

The Senate is being used to disrupt effective government. At the same time Abbott continues to chant his spin that Rudd is a do-nothing PM. He can't have it both ways. If Labor had done nothing about the GFC then we'd have no problems with the insulation scheme.

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Malcolm Turnbull's Ozcar Own Goal

Senator Eric Abez has excused his own and his leader's abysmal lack of judgment over the fake Ozcar email by suggesting that occasionally the opposition bowls a "no ball":

The Opposition does have to go in hard, does have to keep a government accountable and from time to time, given that we're playing the Ashes at the moment, when the Opposition runs in, every now and then they do bowl a no ball and that is unfortunate.
PM calls on Turnbull to resign over OzCar
The World Today ABC 5 August 2009

The better sporting metaphor would have been an own goal as the pair certainly posted a major score for the Rudd government. If Malcolm won't resign, then Eric should fall on his stumps before he runs out his captain.

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Steve Fielding: Get out of the way!

So Senator Steve Fielding is demanding a $4 billion addition (or is it substitution) to the Rudd government's stimulus package. You have to wonder just what the role of a sole Senator is. Economic management? Grandstanding? Political/economic vandalism? Whatever he thinks it is, I'm sure the overwhelming majority of the Australian electorate have a message for him:

Get out of the way!

You can send him your thoughts at:

senator.fielding@aph.gov.au

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Steve Fielding: chief censor

It would be ironic if the government's opt-out internet filtering system is blocked by the conservatives, especially Senator Steve Fielding. The Age reports:

Family First Senator Steve Fielding wants hardcore pornography and fetish material blocked under the Government's plans to filter the internet, sparking renewed fears the censorship could be expanded well beyond "illegal material".

The Opposition said it would most likely block any attempts to introduce the controversial mandatory ISP filtering policy, so the Government would need the support of Senator Fielding as well as the Greens and Senator Nick Xenophon to pass the legislation.
Net filters may block porn and fetish sites

Populists politics, wowserism and moralising have made this issue into a hot one for Stephen Conroy. Despite the problems with an opt-in filtering system, it is time for the Rudd government to reconsider.

There has certainly been a strong reaction around the blogosphere:

I have a simple message to Senator Conroy. Stop bullying opponents of the scheme and take time to listen to those affected by this hideous plan.
iTWire: Mandatory Content Filtering in Australia

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Senate Watch: Opportunist U-Turn for Fielding

So Steve Fielding is no longer holding the government to ransom. His cave-in over blocking changes to the Medicare surcharge and the alcopops tax is both welcome and instructive. As Brendan Nelson and more recently Malcolm Turnbull discovered, populist politics are a two-edged cliché.

In his own word, Fielding is going to deliver "stability" to help fight the financial crisis. One part of this is right. His obstructionism has been destabilising, crises aside. His search for votes and publicity has been at the expense of good government. His arguments against these measures were hardly compelling reasons for blocking major budgetary items. Plus he has received considerable criticism.

There is no doubt that his compromise with the government over the luxury car tax is little understood. Any real analysis passed me by, as more pressing economic events overwhelmed it. The murky backroom dealing is easy to imagine and may even extend to this latest reversal by Fielding. Who knows what his going rate is at the moment.

I am reminded of another time but a similar issue. I was driving taxis in May 1974. This was an honourable profession for Arts graduates. Recently retired ALP Senator Robert Ray and one time Defence Minister also started this way, as well as spending a short stint as a teacher.

One afternoon I picked up a fare at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in Spring Street, Melbourne and took them to Liberal Party headquarters in South Melbourne. There were three politicians including Tony Staley, the Member for Chisholm. They had just had a meeting with representatives of the private health insurance industry about how to oppose the Medibank double dissolution bill that was one of the triggers for the 1974 election. Receiving their riding instructions so to speak.

Now every cabbie knows that people in suits think that you can’t speak the lingo. Even if you could you’d never understand a conversation about the politics of health insurance. How wrong can they be! Staley and Co. spoke openly for twenty minutes about their likely strategy in the coming weeks.

After my shift finished, I went to my unpaid work at the time, as a campaign volunteer in the ALP office. No doubt there were ethical issues about a cabbie’s confidentiality. It still brings a smile.

Medibank was established after a joint sitting following Gough Whitlam’s re-election. Malcolm Fraser’s government effectively destroyed it as a public, universal health insurance system until it was reinstated as Medicare by the Hawke government.

There are a few morals to this tale. Senator Fielding chose to align himself with not only Coalition obstructionism but also with th big end of town: big booze and the private health insurance industry. They are dangerous bed-fellows. No wonder he has decided to take this opportunity for a somewhat graceful backdown. Need to look up a thesaurus: backdown, flip-flop, reversal, cave-in, retreat, u-turn, back-flip.

For those who know little about double dissolutions and joint sitting of parliament, now may be the right time to fill that gap. The irony for Fielding is that he would only need half the normal proportion to be re-elected in a double dissolution.

Original post at GetUp's Project Democracy

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Fielding plays populist with luxury car tax

Family First's Steve Fielding has played populist politics with the luxury car tax. He said he was defending farmers' and tourist operators' "tools of trade".

The numbers tell a different story. The standard Toyota Landcruiser Cab-chassis starts at around $55,000 and a Troop Carrier for just over $60,000. The Hilux 4WD is around $40,000. The increase in luxury tax for a $65,000 vehicle would have been approximately $350 after business tax deductions. For a $60,000 vehicle it would have been round $120. At $57,180 it would be zero.

Farmers and tour operators who chose sensible options in hard times would not have been affected to any significant extent. But it sounds good. Families will pay the shortfall of $555 million in some way. Presumably through higher interest rates because of a reduced surplus.

According to the Australian Taxation Office website:

The term ‘car’ does not include:

* trucks and vans designed to carry a load of more than two tonnes

* vehicles, such as buses, designed to carry nine or more passengers

Farmers and tour operators who chose sensible options in hard times would not have been affected to any real extent.

But it sounds good. Families will pay for the taxation shortfall of $555 million in some way. Presumably through higher interest rates because of a reduced surplus. Fielding should answer to his constituency for that, rather than trying to pick up easy votes.

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GetUp's Spring Offensive: Project Democracy

There is a spring offensive at GetUp. Its new Project Democracy was launched yesterday. The first target is the Australian Senate.

"It's a forum for you to build local activism, discuss the issues that matter, and comment on the performance of your Senators. You can comment on posts from other members of the PD community, or submit your own blog post."

My recent post Senate Watch: keeping the bastards honest has been included in the section on Victoria.

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Senate Watch: keeping the bastards honest

Paul Keating famously called the Senate “unrepresentative swill”.

If that’s the case, why is it so important?

Don Chipp’s Democrats were supposed “to keep the bastards honest”. Of course he meant the major parties. But for most of the last 50 years we could well ask who was keeping the minor parties and independents honest? Particularly when they held the balance of power. Nor can the Coalition Senators be forgotten as they can make or break government legislation as well.

We had a brief moment during the past 3 years when the Howard government had a majority in the Senate. Work Choices was its most glaring result. For most of my voting career of 40 years, minor parties have held the balance of power or the Coalition have had the numbers.

The coalition aside, The Greens, Family First’s Steve Fielding and independent Nick Xenophon will decide what part of the government’s legislative and fiscal programs get the nod. Why do they need to be watched?

I’ll be watching the Greens to see how they deal with climate change.

Family First’s and Xenophon’s moral agendas are an obvious focus but more importantly we need to scrutinise how Fielding votes on other issues and why. Senator Brian Harradine extracted a ban on the abortion pill RU486 by supporting other Coalition legislation.

When he negotiates about issues such as Fuel Watch, South Australia’s Lower Lakes and an Emissions Trading Scheme, we can expect Nick to push his private member’s bill banning ATMs at poker machine venues.

Fielding's family values, which many regard as Christian values, will also be on the table. Usually these equate to matters related to sexuality and censorship. And we are not talking about freedoms or choice.

The issue of horse trading and narrow agendas is not the only reason why we should be watching the Senate very closely. A short list would include:

• Its power to block Supply
• Its narrow mandate
• Its role as a States house: States Rights and interests
• Public accountability and scrutiny through Question Time and the Committee system
• The politics of climate change

More on these in later posts.

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The Ubiquitous Nick Xenophon's Flip-Flop

You can't get away from the ubiquitous Nick Xenophon now that he shares the balance of power in the Senate. This is especially true in South Australia where we are at present, but he also popped up on Channel Nine's new Sunday morning program and ABC Radio National's Life Matters this morning. He is the new Barnaby Joyce or Pauline Hanson. His opinion is sought about every topic, sometimes even the issue he was elected on, poker machines.

His interview with Laurie Oakes yesterday was intsructive. He promised that he would not indulge in horse-trading or bartering his vote. He'll be the first! He will determine things on the merits of the the facts. He claimed his approach is evidence-based. He looks at the facts. He will " look at every piece of legislation on its merits". Nick's going to be a busy boy!

I'm more worried about a values-based approach such as we have seen from the likes of Brian Harradine and Steve Fielding. The government gets fuel watch or its equivalent and we get restrcitive laws on sexuality, scientific research and censorship.

It is easy to play the populist on water for the Lower lakes and fuel prices. Interesting that he supported a fuel watch scheme in the SA parliament but admits to doing his homework afterwards and is now opposed. He told Oakes, "I live and learn". In the major parties it's called shooting from the hip followed by a flip-flop.

It's not as easy to find out where independents stand on other more controversial topics. I tried to find out more on his website and Facebook but didn't find much that was new or enlightening.

If the Senate is meant to keep the bastards honest, let's hope the media will apply that to all of our elected, not just the government.

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