So did anyone emerge from the alcopops saga with credit?
Maybe the Big Grog multinationals, who will harvest a $300m windfall when the excise is returned. But they’re embarrassed about such largesse and trying to find ways to give it to a worthy cause, with the Government intent on forcing it down their throats until they choke on it.
Maybe the Federal Coalition, which will doubtless benefit from the donations of a grateful alcohol industry for the next election, but which will wear the odium of having brought alcoholic lollywater once again within pocket money range.
Maybe the Government, which can look martyred and point to Senate obstructionism, but which has handled what was always a stunt based on a moral panic poorly.
But definitely not Steve Fielding, who claims to be the biggest opponent of binge drinking in Parliament and has struck one almighty blow in its favour with his vote.
And definitely not Country Liberal Senator Nigel “Solo Man” Scullion, who was having an “impromptu meeting” with, according to Laurie Oakes, former senator Natasha Stott Despoja in a stairwell when the division was called and had to apologise to everyone for missing the vote that briefly went in the Government’s favour before being reversed under the Senate’s “rolls replay” tradition. Sue Boyce, the last Senator to cost the Coalition a division, presumably sent Scullion a bunch of flowers this morning for getting her off the hook.
Nor Eric Abetz, who this morning said alcopops were a great way for young drinkers to keep track of their alcohol intake. Yep, Eric, keep track all the way til they pass out.
Meantime the Government and the independents are engaged in brinkmanship over the definition of a small business. It seems a minor matter to wreck a bill on. On the one hand, Julia Gillard can say, Labor took the definition of 15 people to the 2007 election and won. On the other, 20 full-time equivalents is the ABS definition of a small business and the real issue, as Nick Xenophon said this morning, is that currently under Workchoices the definition is 100, which is absurd, and whether it is reduced by 80 or 85 seems fairly trivial compared to the goal of fixing it.
The Government can afford to hang tough, because if it doesn’t budge, the attention will turn to the Coalition. Either it will get its Fair Work Bill through, or the Coalition will vote it down, handing the Government another Workchoices weapon. The latter is more likely, according to Coalition sources, given the Government hasn’t accepted the Coalition’s amendments. There may not even be a partyroom meeting to make a decision, given the final vote may come on quickly in the Senate.
So expect the Senate to reject the bill today, but for it to return in an extended sitting tomorrow. That will be when Xenophon, Fielding and Gillard have to show their hands.
As several commentators have suggested, the Government could always turn it into a double dissolution trigger. But double dissolution elections are invariably about anything BUT the bill that initiates them, and however potent Workchoices was pre-recession, it has now lost some of its bogeyman status for middle Australia. If the Government wanted a true double dissolution trigger that would have engaged the public’s support, it should have refused to deal with Nick Xenophon on the second stimulus package. The May Budget might provide some more opportunities along those lines.
The Government might also find the Senate more amenable if it organised its legislative scheduling better. It tried to get the ABIP bill through yesterday and had it delayed until the Budget. Today in the Senate the Government also wants passed a bill on the senior’s card, a tax amendment that affects NGOs’ fringe benefits arrangements, an aviation bill, a therapeutic goods bill, some budget bills and the bill that gives effect to the Government’s stimulus package promise to the Greens to double the liquid assets threshold for people claiming unemployment benefits. It insists many of the bills are urgent. The Greens tried to arrange an extra sitting week given Parliament rises this week until the Budget, but the major parties weren’t interested.
The focus might be on the brinkmanship and theatrics but sometimes doing the simple things right can make a government’s life a lot easier.
So now we go back to giving a tax break to a form of alcohol targeted at young people.
It seems fairly clear that Govt belligerence cost it an alcopops deal. It is a little too early in the New World Order for this government to start throwing its weight around with that level of disregard for the House of Review. So, regardless of the outcome, hopefully a message was delivered to the Govt i.e. “take the Senate seriously or on your bike!”.
Now apropos the Gillard Bill, 15, 20 or 25 is neither here no there because it really concerns the number of part time and casual employees caught up in this. A friend of mine has a market research firm and after being “visited” by BIG UNION was forced to move his interviewing operation offshore. His is not a big business but it is people- intensive. These are casual or part time people who subsequently lost jobs to NZ. This person I might add is no conservative and a fair employer.
Originally, prior to the hijack by the BIG’s, the legislation was an attempt to protect small business from going out of business because it couldn’t afford to play in a game where ability to deal with legislation dictated the outcome. BIG loves other BIG because it keeps out little – small unions are forced to amalgamate and small business has either to sell out or slowly be destroyed by government red tape or other costs of entry.
As Small Business accounts for close to 40% of employment in this country what is the end goal of forcing them to the wall? You see what happens when BIG gets involved, the little people and businesses get whacked! Who will stand up for this group which still carries the bulk of the workforce on its back?
These people are not bankers by the way and were hardly party to this cash grab that has been going on over the last few years.
Love it, good one BK.
I think the ‘stunt’ based on a moral panic was in fact a rapid response to a community ‘moral panic’ that had significant shades of ‘what have we done to our children’ guilt in it, response to which will always look a bit suspect even though necessary.
I believe the government when they say, like all the experts, this is a complex problem and we will deliver a more complex and considered bigger plan. Why be cynical when they have been extraordinarily busy the last 6 months and more. Solving the ‘real’ economy is a tad more serious than the ‘pocket money’ economy.
Like Glen I think Fielding needs to extract his well hidden (where the sun doesn’t shine) 1st Family and think of all the other families.
Brads suggestion should be taken so seriously. The reason why the industry is giving it away is because it’s easier to do that than give it back to industry businesses that collected it who then in turn would have to give it back to the customers who paid it plus they know the hidden factors that have brought on this remorseful guilt. Nothing is what it’s announced to be. They want to hide the truth and your reader Adam doesn’t know.
For Adam’s edification those at most risk from alcopops (designed to be afforded by pre-wage pocket money earners) are drinking it mostly not to get drunk because even kids are so smart they can work out what makes you the most drunk but to be in (peers).
The young can’t stand the taste of most alcoholic beverages so they go for lolly water unconfessingly and say “ thank God it’s less than 5% and tastes sweet like my favourite cool drink while the industry rips them off for their trouble truly earning the title ‘designer drink’ but their peer’s say to them “you’re hot sh-t”.
Psychology, psychology, psychology is everything
Maybe Steve Fielding is actually saying what the “silent majority” have been saying all along. Having read the comments for this article I was disappointed in their content.
What everybody seems to be missing (and the Government hopes they go on missing ad infinitum) is that the Government is slowly and surely taking away the one thing we should be exercising; responsibility. If the younger generation want to give that away then the government will willingly do it for them.
I have family in the alcohol industry. The trend on the alcopops when the tax was introduced ILLEGALLY on 27 APR 08 was a decline (because the price went up) so the younger generation promptly turned to the “real deal” and spirit sales soared. The Government hasn’t lost the 300 million because it has picked that up in full strength spirit sales and have probably done better than that in any case.
Nicola Roxon as a Health Minister showed her own lack of “responsibility” when she introduced the tax because she did it illegally and she knew that. As a Health Minister she is well known for her lack of committment on any front. She can’t even organise a six monthly visit to the dentist for a check up but whinges loudly when she does go because she has more cavities than you can poke a stick at.
It serves her right and she deserves everything she gets including the backlash from the young voter population.
Gee I have been stupid. I did really believe that if I voted for Labor, they would be able to put in place the promises that led me to vote to them. I should have learnt before this as I also voted for Whitlam. This is not true, only the party that is born to rule has this right. Any other party. especially Labor cannot be trusted to government. They must ensure that they will change what they promise if the Coalition says so, as only they, Coalition are fit to government. It is only the stupidity of Labor voters that allowed them to be elected. The Coalition has the god given right to ensure that by their spoiling actions and blocking, that Labor is unable to govern, even if it is in the best interest of the country. If the Coalition keeps saying that whatever this government does will not work, there is a likelihood the governments actions will fail. No matter if the result is a depression, the coalition will not be to blame. How was I so silly to think we lived in a democracy. Stupid, Stupid me.