Independents, hung parliaments

16 August, 2010

As we grind our way towards Saturday 21 August, there is no doubt that this is the most boring election campaign in living memory.

Instead of our political parties running campaigns and focusing on the ideological differences, we have been subjected to public relations drives.

In a bitterly fought election campaigns, that engage the public, the winner can rightly claim they have a mandate to implement their reforms. This is vital if the elected government does not control the upper house. 

At the end of this campaign, we will more than likely have an upper house controlled by the Greens. There is also the prospect that we end up with a hung parliament.  

There is concern that this hands power over to a minority, and that the government will be held to ransom by the independent or smaller parties. In the majority of legislation, where both major parties agree, the votes of the independents are irrelevant; it is only when the major parties don’t agree do the independents have power.

The real danger is that an independent has an overwhelming advantage when lobbying the government for spending in their electorate, or for support for their issues. This can divert resources and efforts away from where the majority of the electorate wanted them to go, and into minority issues or disproportionate spending in the independents electorate.

For business, the prospect of independents having significant influence will make dealing with government more problematic.

Minority governments are more likely to be inconsistent on issues, and shy away from making the hard decisions.