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November 24, 2005
The Rann ALP in SA continues it's long march to the right.
Achinson
The latest tactic is to emulate the Queensland of yesterday and move to abolish the Legislative Council on the grounds that the upper house of state parliament is a relic of a time long gone. The Premier says:
I think it's time to modernise our parliament so it reflects the demands and expectations of a confident state as it prospers and grows into this 21st century. Let's face it, in my view the upper house has become a relic of a time in our democratic history that is long gone. It is past its use by date. It's not a bear pit, it's a sand pit.It's become a circus of smear, a den of petty game playing. Like many other South Australians, I do not believe this house of parliament serves the people as best it could or should. Now, people want to use the chamber as some form of smear machine. It has become a petty, partisan circus.The Legislative Council has lost its way."
The assumption is that the ALP in SA is a modern reformist party and that the reactionary upper house is obstructing good reforms These assumptions are false.
The Rann Labor government is right of centre, deeply conservative, and forever attacking the judicary in the name of being tough on law and order. The Legislative Council is nicely balanced. Of the 22 Legislative Council members in the current parliament the Liberal Party holds nine seats, Labor seven, three are held by the Australian Democrats, two are independents and one seat belongs to Family First. Pretty democratic. It is likely the Australian Democrats will lose two seats in the March election--to the Greens?
Has the Legislative Council lost its way? What is the Rann Government's argument? He says that the Labor ministers are especially angry that key legislation - including changes to development laws, stiffer penalties for aggravated assault, and child protection laws – have been either held up or amended by the Upper House. They also are angry at the way the chamber has established a series of select committees to examine issues such as electricity, the stashed cash affair and the Ashbourne affair.
Isn't amendment of legislation and select committees the way liberal democracy functions in Australia? So the Rann Govermment is making a bid for more power, for executive dominance. Business SA is all for abolition. Murdoch's tabloid Advertiser talks in terms ot being high time to burn down the Legislative Council. Democracy needs to be replaced by strong leadership is their motto.
I hear fascist resonances in that.
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Parliamentary systems have poor seperation of powers anyway, mixing legislative and executive in the executive cabinet. Throw in how party discipline is enforced in Australia, and a Joh lurks round every corner. The upper houses are one of the few checks we have on the executive running rampant over parliament.