Not much more can be said, Malcolm.

Except, perhaps, that Labor and the Greens avoided any discussion of their preference deal before the election, both Gillard and Brown pretending they had nothing to do with it.

Then, lo and behold, there's a post-election "alliance" - neither party had a mandate for that, but at least we now know what we're dealing with: an utterly and permanently comprised Labor Party which is heading for extinction because it is abandoning the political centre and doing deals with the extreme left of Australian politics.

Then again, I suppose that since Labor was planning to destroy the economy by shutting down the coal mining industry via a carbon tax, they haven't had to move very far.

The Laborites have thus far been living off the credit created by Howard and Costello.

Malcolm Colless is dead right when he infers that business which abhors uncertainty and policy vacuums will avoid investing.

It doesnt matter whether its individual investors and developers here in Australia, or external international investors, we will be on the nose from now on.

First of all business sentiment will decline then we will be in free fall as the certain troubles that will be created by the looming idiocies of a Labor-Green Alliance + Independants Demands start to appear...plus a by election or two.

..and all because that pretentious and incompetent creep from Qld got in originally.

"Big business" doesn't like the Greens.

Who'd have thought?

I thought the Government of the day was for the people benefit not big business? Big business operates in every country in the world no matter what type of government is in, so your argument on the front doesn't make any sense at all. I hear Halliburton did quite well in Iraq....
"And it is hard to believe that the Greens will not use this increased power to drive their own agenda in areas critically affecting the future of the Australian economy such as coal mining. "
Are you saying that the greens shouldn't try to drive an agenda that they were voted by a large number of people to do. What are you saying that once elected the Greens should follow what the two big parties do and ignore what these people who voted for thought they were going to get?
One of the defining aspect of the Australian media is just how out of touch they are with the public at large. Stop telling us what we think and start listening.
I voted Green for the first time this election because I was unhappy with Labours back down on Climate change action. The lack of vision by both major parties on the new economies is breath taking. . I grant that a fair bit of the green vote this election was as protest against the major parties, but you have to acknowledge that that protest vote went left in a greater measure then it went to alternative right wing parties

What a lot of pigs slops. A vote for the greens was a vote for labour, it was all over the place.

Maybe the 11.5% of the vote the greens got is the usual 10% of any population who are idiots and a few (1.5%) protest voting.

Ever considered that?

All the people I saw interviewed who were going to vote green, had no idea why, most said it was because they didn't want to vote ALP or coalition - if I was in the greens, I would not be happy with that, certainly it is not a stable voting base is it?

People were voting for a brand, not for policies, not for the people in the green party, they were voting for "green" and nothing to do with the actual goals - so just as easily, they could vote for something else, since they seem to be totally unprincipled people .. or idiots.

I loved the Chasers skit on green/watermelon voters, near wet myself!

Yes, I had posted this earlier on anther article, it just seems to fit here, and you'll all be happy to know, I recycle!

Well, at least Australia can now pride itself on its democratic system-three individual mutts deciding what Government for the whole nation. Highly democratic !

Stable government? Should Labor form the next government, the over-riding certainty of the Labor-Greens Alliance is that there would be more uncertainty in all industry sectors. Foreign investors would need to think twice before investing in Australia. Imposition of an ETS/carbon-tax would be expected to result in electricity prices going through the roof and Australian manufacturers losing any comparative advantage they currently have. We would have to get used to stagflation: high inflation accompanied by high unemployment.

I can see the Liberal slogan at the next election already.

A vote for the Greens is a vote for left-wing Labor.

Bob will be pleased, I'm sure, but Bill will be horrified!

*I voted Green for the first time this election because I was unhappy with Labours back down on Climate change action.*

Ah Kenny, and what will happen when they jack up your electricity
price by 100% to pay for it all? Will you be the first to complain?

If you don't, I can assure you that millions will. Corporations
won't be the ones paying, for they don't operate at a loss. Its
cheaper for them to produce no electricity, then do so and
constantly lose money. So in the end the consumer will pay.

So that is the dilemma for consumers and voters. We can satisify our feelgood
factor tomorrow, when it comes to climate change. But the cost
will be dramatically increased electricity prices, so don't complain
when it happens. Will it make a scrap of difference to climate?
Not really, because in the global scheme of things, Australia simply
does not matter.

Will it make a scrap of difference to climate?
Yabby,
This is what the silly mutts don't ever seem to grasp. We get climate change no matter what we do. But how to get get a change of mentality is the far greater & more relevant challenge. Judging by the election fiasco I guess we're still a long way off Hawkie's clever country.

<< Surely the best way for Katter, Oakeshott and Windsor to demonstrate this is to follow the voting intention of their constituencies which seems to clearly favour supporting the coalition regardless of their personal feuding with the National Party. >>

Sounds logical Malcolm. But what is more logical is the position that I’ve been strongly advocating and which most people dismiss as a no-goer – that the independents remain truly independent and don’t back either party.

They should simply say that they won’t block supply bills or put a spanner in the works of a parliament that is run by either lab or lib, but will remain entirely independent regarding their vote on anything else.

This is what they are basically saying anyway – that no matter who they back, they will remain essentially independent. So why back either?

OK, so they’re in powerful bargaining positions where they could win big favours from the party that wins government if they back them. But they could lose out badly if the other party wins. They could just as effectively win a lot for their electorates from either party if they promised not to back the other one, couldn’t they?

<< The agreement reached between Labor and the Greens essentially deals with peripheral issues >>

Yes it is a piss-weak set of agreements, compared to what the Greens should have put on the table, as I have emphasised here: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3936

<< …it is hard to believe that the Greens will not use this increased power to drive their own agenda in areas critically affecting the future of the Australian economy such as coal mining >>

Not sure about that because I’m sure that the Greens do actually have an agenda that is significantly different to Labor! The Greens just don’t seem to be too interested in the big green issues of our time!

Julia Gillard must be flat out practicing the phrase "may we say God save the Queen but nothing with save Bill Shorten's Mother in Law"

Tony pulls a billion dollars out of his head for a hospital in Tas; no wonder there's a black hole in costings.
I think they would be better off with Turnbull.
That may be a little hard to do now that july has set the trend by going to an election to justify a new leader.
The greens and wilkie have shown real independance by making their own decisions. Katter and belchin jo must be twins.
It is amazing how quiet the womens movement around the country have been. I think July would be simpathetic to women. No doubt thats what Tony's paid womens scheme was about.

Tony pulls a billion dollars out of his head for a hospital in Tas; no wonder there's a black hole in costings.
579.
That black hole was dug by Labor & going by evidence from the past we can rest assured that a conservative outfit will fill that black hole & pay for that hospital as well. I'd like to see Labor do a stunt like that. Highly unlikely I'd say.

Business! How I hate that word.

It brings to my mind a decadent picture of paneled boardrooms where well-dressed moneygrubbers spend their lives plotting how to rip off the majority of people within any nation so that they can enjoy huge salaries, share issues, MacMansions, and mixing with other people similarly dedicated to greed and elitism.

Surely it's time that we renounced the concept of business and set up a world that protects the environment, that ensures equality, that encourages people to satisfy their creative skills, that puts the concept of war on the scrapheap and makes greed a dirty word.

But I'm not holding my breath.

I wish you twits would get it in your head that when you sign that promise to join a politicial party, "I promise to agree with the decisions of the majority", you are saying that you have no integrity or no pride in your integrity, and undoubtidly, not too much intelligence, and that's what we have in parliament. Whether you like it or not, it doesn't matter which one of the existing party is elected in, the public will see that they are incompetemt, not very intelligent and probably not very honest, and seek to replace them next time round. With a lot of luck, a new party of intelligent people with integrity and a lot of courage will break the drought, and bring into parliament an intelligent and prosperous government, I live in hope, but the fanatics will still be raving on. The only treasurer and Prime Minister we have ever had, was Harold Holt, from 1958 as treasurer, and Prime Minister until his misterous "drowning", " was taken by a shark", " was taken by a submarine" in 1967. Unfortunatrly all honest outspoken members of parties in parliament are generally found a plumb position, where they would like best, "A position in Ireland or the vatican" have beem some in the last 20 years.

it doesn't matter which one of the existing party is elected in,
Merv09,
So what you're saying is that it doesn't matter that the Coalition filled the coffers over 9 years & Labor emptied them in just 1.
I fail to see your rationale there. As Pauline would say, please explain ?
I for one feel that getting a smaller pay packet for the same job in the same position simply due to amalgamation under Labor does matter to me.

Have you read the Greens website. Do! And pick on Global Government
and Global depopulation. And Bob Browns announcement some weeks before
the election he had priorities. One was to legalise the gender "intersex' That gave us a laugh..."Your Worship ... My client is intersex' - "And so are we!" the Jury laugh out loud... Seriously, with many Gay people align and identify with the Greens, it is a socialist type party. And that is why they align with labor.

I could NOT care a stuff if Gay People get married. Good luck to them. The churches have the right not to hold marriage services for anyone, not just gay couples. (Like divorced people or mixed religion couples).

But his view that homosexuality should be accepted in our culture, I feel that is a social statement not a political one.

I wonder why carbon should be taxed. OK, people pollute their environment. We have degraded soils. But CO2 is not the problem,
we are. But we should be aware of our use of tap supplied water, &
energy and food quality. And carbon tax won't correct that.

"And it is hard to believe that the Greens will not use this increased power to drive their own agenda in areas critically affecting the future of the Australian economy such as coal mining."
As a Party member I hope this is exactly what our members of parliament do. The Green vote increases election after election, over a million Australians voted Green, they endorse our policies, end of story. I'm not interested in some edited news clip on TV where some voter said "Well um, I voted Green cause I didn't like Labor or Liberal." Watch the March state election in NSW, the Green vote will go through the roof.