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Australia joins the
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>>When you say “She finds herself in a position, unique in Australian political history,” you seem to imply that this was all someone else’s fault that she suddenly “found herself” there.<<
She is the first Australian political leader to find herself in the position, in the aftermath of an election, of having to negotiate for power with a bunch of random minor parties and "independent" ratbags.
Sure, she orchestrated the demise of Rudd. To that extent she brought it upon herself.
But the situation in which she found herself after the election was, I maintain, "unique in Australian political history".
Hindsight says that she should have left the ratbags for Abbott to manage, and simply watch him make precisely the same strategic mistakes. Fun, but not particularly responsible.
As I said, I don't believe she has made many smart decisions. But when there are no precedents, and you have to make five judgment calls where - managing as a single Party - you would previously only have to make one, the job is far from straightforward.
Abbott would have been in the same situation.
The biggest mistake was to allow a government to be formed at all. Quentin Bryce should have fulfilled her role honestly, and rejected the matzoh pudding of a coalition she was offered, on the basis that it would be unstable.
Which it clearly is.
Unfortunately, the country is still suffering from Gough-itis, even after all these years. Her options - agree to the lovely Julia, or force another election to be held - were circumscribed by the residual race-memory of Kerr. Any intervention by the Governor-General in politics would cause a riot in the streets, so she did the line-of-least-resistance bit.
A situation that we really have to resolve, if we are ever to become a Republic.