By Greg Thomson, Community Newspaper Group editor-in-chief
AS much as it pains me to say it, someone please bring on another Federal election, and let’s not dither about it.
Counting of outstanding ballots from the August 21 poll is likely to continue for days yet, but it’s been obvious since election night that neither Labor nor the Coaltion can secure enough seats to govern in their own right.
Even in a minority government sense, the numbers are simply too close to produce effective, stable government and a meaningful opposition.
As this newspaper went to press, the numbers were increasingly looking like 73 seats to the Coalition, 72 to Labor, three to the aligned independents, one Greens lower house MP, and new Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie.
No matter how you cut and dice it, the best either side would be able to muster – assuming the highly unlikely event that four independents and the Green all moved in one bloc - would be 78 seats in Tony Abbott’s case, or 77 seats if Julia Gillard’s charm triumphs.
The Green has already backed Labor, so once you appoint a Speaker, you are looking at a 150-seat chamber with the bearest of majorities – and one at risk of human foibles, particularly in the event of illness during legislative passage, or an unexpected by-election.
Framing a government with a two or three-seat buffer is simply too dangerous, and one which puts at risk stable government and invites the toppling of our democracy at any time.
Do we really want a government held to ransom in such a manner?
The obvious solution is not a political pact formed out of expediency and the ambition of a few, but a new election in which voters are again asked to appoint a government for a new term.
The financial cost of a fresh poll is estimated at $170 million, not to mention the voter aggravation it would herald.
This is a small price to pay for democracy, and the capacity for one side of politics to govern decisively.