Australian Politics

Bronwyn now gone, what next ?
By GDL.

After having been under pressure and in damage control for weeks, the Liberals finally gave way and get Bronwyn to vacate the seat of speaker. The departure (or sacking) of that old fart, Bronwyn, saved Tony Abbott and his party from disaster. It was a such relief for Tony Abbott and his government.
But it was also a relief for the parliamentarians of the Labor Party because, Bronwyn has been  so bias and partisan to the extent of throwing them out of the chamber for standing up to her. The old woman, Bronwyn, threw members of the Labor Party out of parliament  400 times. She also never listened to their griefs and disregarded their points of order. She was not worthy of the title of Speaker who, once in the chair, should be above party lines.To add insult to injury she was lavishly spending taxpayers' money on her extravagant travels and enjoyments. It is now rumoured that she will not event contest the next elections !!
Now there is a new speaker Tony Smith, who made a sober speech on his first day, and there are promising signs that he would be better speaker. The eyes and ears are now turning to the government and the opposition and their long awaited policies for the future of Australia. What can we expect ?
The coalition government seems to have exhausted their ammunitions and cannot come back again with their policies/slogans of the past elections of turning back the boats and repealing the carbon tax. Neither can they come back talking about budget repairs and deficit as they have got a bad situation worse (to use the words of Donal Duck). The deficit is now bigger than when they took office, iron ore price slumping, unemployment on the rise, growth is lower than what they forecast but they are still spending and ignoring that there is a revenue problem.They are burning what they adored. They do not want to talk about increasing the GST and now talking about reducing income tax !!! Actually, as Paul Kelly said, no one is listening to the broken records of Joe Hockey; and the finance minister, Mathias Corman, is struggling to explain the economics whenever he faces the media. On what platforms will the coalition go to the next elections is any body's guest.  
What about the Labor party of Mr Bill Shorten ? First Bill is short of being a fiscal conservative. His economic credentials leaves much to be desired. He is still not telling us whether he intends to repair the budget and raise revenue. Instead he is talking about spending more on Education, Health and Social Services. For the last elections Australians kicked Labor  in the arse for their idiosyncrasies,  inconsistencies, shortcomings and inner bickerings,  which gave us, by default, a coalition government and Tony Abbott as PM.                                                                                                What will happen next year, which party to vote for in its own right ? The Liberals will not have a Labor government to blame and will have to campaign on their success and what they have done well while in government. But what are these positives ? What will be their new policies and will people believe in the new promises since they broke all their promises while in office ? Will Joe Hockey still be around to smoke his cigar after presenting a f.... budget ? Will Scott Morrisson be in the forefront during the campaign and presented as the next treasurer of even the future PM ? Will that be enough to save the government ?
On the Labor's side, will people forget the killing years of Rudd and Gillard and how they turned voters away from the party ? Will people forgive them for their alliance with the Greens which gave us the infamous carbon tax ? Will the Labor Party be presenting a new and clean Labor ?  Is Bill Shorten not too short of convincing arguments and policies to obtain the trust of the voters ? Can Labor win back its traditional voters i.e the bulk of the working class, unemployed, migrants, students, pensioners, battlers, and the middle class who have been victims of the coalition government ? Can Bill Shorten win the argument of climate change and the introduction of an ETS ? Will they attract Green voters with their promise of "le marriage pour tous" ? Can they get back those who were against boats arrivals with their "me too" policy ?
These are questions that will face the voters next year but for the time being the answers, my friend, are blowing in the wind.
GDL.