 Political Corrections
with Margo Kingston
With Lees the End is Nigh for Dems
In the beginning there was Pauline Hanson, whose power climaxed last year with Tampa. Now the fallout: the transformation of Australian politics to accommodate the new climate.
Lefties are deserting Labor for the Greens. Their backs are to the wall - on state ownership, unionism and social policy - and they want to dig in and just say no. The Greens know which side their bread is buttered on - their leadership rejected Bob Brown's push to sell Telstra in exchange for an end to logging of old-growth forests because economic leftism is vital to keep growing the voter base.
Labor doesn't believe in what it used to and hasn't worked out what it does believe in that's any different from the Liberals. The Liberals shed their small "l" credentials in favour of big brother social conservatism, indifference to human rights and a radical dismantling of the state in favour of the market.
And the Democrats? The public split between their former and current leader is about where the Democrats can profitably position themselves in the new political marketplace. Where is the significant gap the Democrats could credibly fill?
The answer is obvious. There is no party representing free market policies balanced by concern for the human cost, environmental responsibility and progressive social values. Voters of this mind - Liberal- and Labor-leaning - are disenfranchised.
This is the place for the Democrats in the new politics. It is why former Liberal Greg Barns has joined the party. The left won't forgive the Democrats' GST deal. The voters they could get - social progressives who, for example, would like to see Telstra sold in return for some big-spending repair and conservation of our natural environment - are frustrated by Natasha Stott Despoja's hard-left economic stances.
It's no accident that the issue dividing the Democrats is Telstra. There's a good argument that we were lucky Telstra stayed in majority government ownership during the tech boom, because it couldn't spend up too big.
But now, with telecommunications companies around the world in ruins and Telstra well placed to pick up great assets at fire-sale prices, it's time for the Government to sell out and let Telstra grow. Unless, of course, your constituency sees opposition to the sale as a bottom line.
The Democrats were born of a Liberal split when Malcolm Fraser ruled. They developed a Labor lean during the years of Labor power, and began to lean back under the Liberals when Cheryl Kernot did the deal on industrial relations reform.
The Democrats appeal to voters who want to avoid the excesses of absolute power by either side, who want to see longer-term concerns included in debate, and who want governments to prove their case for change on merit. Voting Democrats is not a radical act, it is a vote for the middle ground.
A period of calm after the leak to crikey.com.au of Meg Lees's incendiary letter to the Democrats "compliance committee" has ruptured, and Lees's expulsion is again on the cards. In my view, her expulsion would be good for the party and for Australian politics.
In the new Senate, the Government needs the Democrats or four of the other five senators to pass a law. Sack Lees, and the Government needs four of six.
Lees is a great cost-benefit deal-maker. If expelled, she could exploit the Democrats' rules that senators have a conscience vote on every issue and swing the Telstra vote by attracting supportive Democrats senators once Howard offered her a deal on sale proceeds. Lees could effectively hold the balance of power in the Senate.
In this scenario, Stott Despoja's leftie wing of the Democrats - which failed so woefully in the head-to-head with the Greens at the last election - withers and becomes absorbed into the Greens. Lees leads the rest into a viable alternative for small "l" Liberals and "Third Way" Labor voters.
Maybe Lees is thinking the same way. Sack her now, Stott Despoja, and the Democrats could mutate and survive as a powerful political force. Keep her on, and the Democrats could die.
Email: mkingston@mail.fairfax.com.au
Margo's web diary - www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/webdiary/
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