Why a hung Parliament would be good for us

THE following is why I hope there is a hung Parliament. And perhaps it is why there may well be one. On each of the following policies or issues (in no particular order) one or both the parties have a position that significant majorities oppose.

The plebiscite on marriage equality:

This is a waste of $160 million. There is no constitutional question so no need for a referendum. The High Court has held the Parliament has the power to make the change. Prime Minister Turnbull and his Cabinet overturned Tony Abbott’s knighthoods for Princes, so why not overturn this captain’s pick, too.

A hung Parliament could not only block plebiscite legislation, but also ensure that all the procedural votes go through and a vote is had in the Parliament on ordinary legislation for marriage equality. Presumably the members of a Coalition minority government would vote with their consciences.

Tax and the economy:

Both major parties squibbed major tax reform. They failed to raise and broaden the GST with solid compensation for people on lower incomes and welfare. The GST is the best way to ensure avoiders pay at least some tax and is very efficient. Sure, it causes a burden for people on low incomes but that can be met with compensation through higher welfare payments and lower income tax.

The Coalition’s proposed company-tax cut borders on the insane. It will cost $48bn over 10 years and at least $7bn a year thereafter. Forty percent of it will go to foreign investors and foreign tax authorities – about $1bn a year to US tax authorities alone, once the cut applies to all companies.

This is because US companies get a credit for Australian company tax. If that is lower, they pay more in the US.

The cut to smaller family and unlisted companies is illusory because individual shareholders get a credit on their income tax for any tax paid by the company they are shareholders in. If their company tax falls, their income tax goes up by an equivalent amount.

The whole thing is a misconceived bonus for multinationals, virtually none of which will trickle down to middle-income earners in Australia.

On income tax, the Coalition’s proposed lifting of the threshold of the second top rate to $85,000 and the dropping of the two percent surcharge for high-income earners are unconscionable without bracket-creep adjustments for people on middle and low incomes. Inequality rises and so does disaffection.

Stability:

In the Coalition Government’s three years there have been 18 ministerial changes; two leadership votes, one toppling the leader; three ministers under police investigations; a failed 2014 Budget and sundry ministerial travel rorting. And after the election Tony Abbott will be still hovering around. This does not augur well for stability.

Labor’s Bill Shorten was responsible for challenges against Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, but to be fair Labor seems to have learned its lesson.

Hung Parliaments do not necessarily result in instability. We had one prime ministerial change in each of the past three Parliaments – two were majority and one hung.

The NBN:

It now seems that the Abbott-Turnbull ideological approach of opposing for the sake of opposing means that a visionary plan to link virtually every Australian home and business with fibre to premises has been swapped for an inferior system of fibre to the node and copper from the node to the home. Worse, the inferior system will cost more because the copper system will cost more in the long run to maintain than would be saved in fibre costs.

The Labor scheme would have got more business support if Labor had promised to privatise the finished product in due course.

Open Government:

Both major parties have avoided a wholesale revamp of political donations, politicians’ entitlements, politicians’ interests, and publication of details of all meetings between lobbyists and politicians and bureaucrats. In these days of agile smart computing and internet, these things should be available within hours of them happening, not months as at present.

All soft links between political parties, on one hand, and so-called “independent” think-tanks and political-interest groups, on the other, should be disclosed.

Much more open freedom-of-information laws are needed. Whose information is it anyway?

The crossbench in hung Parliament could force these changes as the price for support.

Climate change and environment:

The major parties are doing as little as they can get away with. Both are beholden to supporters. This is an economic issue. You only have to see some coral bleaching with your own eyes to see the urgency of leading not following the rest of the world on emissions and of cleaning up agricultural and mining run run-off.

Refugees:

We have about 1500 refugees detained illegally on Manus Island and detained on Nauru with no serious attempt to resettle them. Labor and the Coalition say this is necessary to deter people smugglers. Punishing the innocent (with up to life imprisonment) to deter the guilty may be effective – as the Nazis found when they shot innocent villagers to deter partisans – but it is immoral.

Immigration:

John Howard said that we have to be tough on refugees so the public continues to support the immigration program. He got it the wrong way around. We should dramatically reduce the immigration program (hundreds of thousands) so we can support more refugees from our region (a few thousands). The huge immigration program only profits wealthy business people, the construction industry and the property industry, to the detriment of the majority of people, homebuyers, the environment and agricultural land.

The immigration program has stretched infrastructure, causing strain in education, health and transport.

The day when Australia needed an immigration program has long passed, but both major parties continue with it and wonder why Australians are moving from them in Brexit like proportions.

The major parties are so beholden to their financial backers and the Murdoch press, that they cannot do anything but support high immigration. In effect, both Labor and the Coalition have lost control of Australia’s borders.

Visas are being sold and rorted. Family reunion is stretched beyond reasonable limits. Student, employment and business visa holders overstay and ultimately get residency.

The major parties pretend we have control of our borders just because we have stopped the boats. It is a two-card trick. The boats we control are few; the people in the immigration program are many.

The strain it puts on infrastructure and housing costs cannot be dealt with, no matter what either major party promises. This is why they are being chucked out so readily.

Labor, Coalition, take heed.

And by the way, expect a Senate shemozzle with huge numbers of votes exhausting before the final two seats in each state are determined.
CRISPIN HULL
This article first appeared in The Canberra Times and other Fairfax Media on 2 July 2016.