There is only one question for Nick Xenophon to answer during the eight-week federal election campaign: if he wakes up on Sunday morning after the election and holds the balance of power in the lower house, will the NXT back Bill Shorten’s Labor or Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberals to form government?
Well, Nick — is it Bill or Malcolm?
Xenophon will insist he will support the party that offers the best deal for South Australia. Sounds good, doesn’t it? The best deal for us!
The only problem is that he is running candidates in other states as he tries to build a national party and profile. So guess what? He will be telling NSW voters that the Xenophon team will support the party that offers the best deal for NSW. He will tell Victorian voters the same thing.
The problem is that what is good for SA might be bad for Victoria.
A good example is the recent submarines announcement that benefited SA — other states wanted some or all of that money. Do you think Xenophon’s Victorian candidates are telling Victorian business and voters that it’s great SA got all that work?
The Xenophon team might end up supporting Labor in one state and the Liberals in another.
Why would they do this? Simple. Unlike Labor, Liberal and other established parties, Xenophon’s team is based on populism, not a philosophy. So its candidates can take the most popular policy position in each state to win seats. They will not have to take tough policy decisions knowing it may hurt their vote in other states. The lack of national mainstream media scrutiny for Xenophon’s policies means he gets away with positions the major parties could never propose.
The two major parties are so busy trying to win government they often don’t spend time and resources exposing Xenophon’s policy flaws. Or they may not want to expose his policy flaws because they want Xenophon’s preferences.
However, they might have no choice but to attack his policies during this election campaign because Xenophon’s team could potentially win some lower house seats. He will say the attacks on his policies are negative and aggressive — old-style politics from the old parties — but it will really just be him suffering the same scrutiny major party MPs face every day.
As a party that will never be in government, the NXT can promise the world to voters, pick the politically popular line and then, when elected, deliver nothing and blame the government. The Xenophon team will never have to craft a budget or run a department, make decisions and be held accountable for those decisions. They can spend all day thinking up funny lines for the media and shooting from the sidelines.
In SA, his candidates include former Liberal staffer Rebekha Sharkie. There will be Liberals in Mayo naively thinking they may vote for Sharkie as they are not happy with the Liberal incumbent. As Sharkie was a Liberal after all, when push came to shove she would support Malcolm if we have a hung Parliament, wouldn’t she?
They should think again. Sharkie joined Xenophon having worked for three different Liberal MPs, but she did not progress through the party in the way she believed she deserved.
Is Sharkie wakes up on the Sunday morning after the election holding the balance of power, will she really vote to help the Liberal Party into government?
History might be a guide, particularly the examples of Peter Lewis, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor. When was the last time a conservative with the balance of power backed the conservatives? And, of course, we shouldn’t forget Rory McEwen, Karlene Maywald and Martin Hamilton-Smith — all conservatives who agreed to serve in Labor governments.
Will Sharkie rule out putting Bill Shorten into power? If not, you can draw your own conclusion.
Will Sharkie even have a say in the matter if she is elected and Xenophon’s team holds the balance of power, or will there be an edict from Xenophon? Sharkie might be consulted, but will she have a real say?
Out in Labor-held Wakefield, will Xenophon candidate Richard Inwood tell Labor voters thinking of voting for Xenophon’s team that he will support Bill Shorten as prime minister? Will he rule out keeping Malcolm Turnbull in the Lodge? If not why not? I am sure Inwood’s donors and business supporters would be interested in a firm commitment about who he will support.
Surely the voters deserve to know? After all, Xenophon has held hundreds of media conferences calling on governments of all colours to be transparent.
Here is Xenophon’s chance.
*This article was originally published at InDaily
Must be a slow news day
I wish people would stop mis-using the word “populism”: it does not mean seeking popularity. It’s a philosophy which asserts that the interests of “ordinary” people are being neglected by ruling elites (usually economic, although there can be a cultural element). If you want to know what “populism” is, listen to Bernie Sanders for five minutes. Bernie’s is the economic variety: for him the enemy is Wall Street. For the cultural variety, try Donald Trump, for whom the enemy is Muslims, Latinos etc.
NXT has absolutely no chance of winning lower house seats.
Labor and the Liberals are based on philosophies, you say? Something to do with “smaller government” for the latter (contradicted under every Coalition government in decades) and “caring” for the former (contradicted at least since Rudd in the treatment of asylum seekers.) They have both been largely opportunistic for years so it seems a slender reed on which to hang your point of difference with the Xenophonics [I had originally written Xenophones there but I suspect they’re as foreigner-resenting as the rest, in fact.]
As with the exLib shill yesterday (Ralph?), this seems to be our daily dose of partisan piffle.