Australian election: Balancing act
Photo: AFP
General election 2010 in Australia was held on August 21, and neither the incumbent PM Ms. Julia Gillard nor the opposition leader Mr Tony Abbott could gather an absolute majority in the lower house. In other words, the outcome was a hung parliament.
With the support of independents or the Greens Party, one of the leaders will form a minority government in a week or two. The horse-trading, well and truly, began immediately from the night of August 21. It has been an unprecedented outcome in the history of the Australian federation since 1901. The last hung parliament was seen in 1940, in the middle of WWII. With this outcome in 2010 the nation has certainly been thrown into a political minefield and economic uncertainty.
Australia came into the world radar after 1970, when the Australian Labour Party (ALP) leader, Gough Whitlam, came to power and changed the face of Australia forever by abandoning the "White Australia" policy. Like most western nations Australia had also its darkest days, having a discriminatory migration policy (e.g. Australian land is for white people only) for nearly 70 years (1901-1970).
Historically, Australia was a British colony for more than a century before the federation was formed, which made this nation a home for people of predominantly Anglo-Saxon background originating from mother England. Also, immediately after the WWII, this country was an attractive destination for migrants from Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Greece.
However, after winning the 1970 general election, Whitlam abolished White Australia policy and opened the doors for Asian migration, including Chinese, Indians and other races from Southeast and East Asia. Whitlam recognised that Australia was a part of the Asia-Pacific and was not a European nation. This policy worked.
Australia currently has more than 22 million people, with net migration intake of more than 200 thousand per annum and huge investment coming from Asia, including Japan, Korea and China/Taiwan.
Ms. Gillard (the first female prime minister), the incumbent PM, belongs to Whitlam's ALP. Between 1970 and 2010, the governments from both sides of politics (ALP and coalition of Liberals and Nationals (L/N)) had been keen in bringing skilled migrants from Asia (bipartisan), including Bangladesh, based on a universally applied point system that is now adopted by almost all migrant nations on earth.
40 years of open- door policy has made Australia well and truly a multicultural society. The nation has anti-discriminatory laws in place, and violation of those is punishable in the court of law.
Certainly, this nation has come a long way over the last 40 years and, recently, Newsweek placed Australia among the top 10 nations on earth in terms of economy, politics and quality of life. In fact, the survey found Australia to be the fourth top nation behind Finland (top), Switzerland (second) and Sweden (third). Indeed, Australia's rise has been overwhelming over the last four decades.
With respect to relation with Bangladesh, we certainly have very fond memories of working together. Australia was one of the first five nations that recognised Bangladesh -- immediately after India did in December 1971. The then PM, Gough Whitlam, was instrumental in recognising Bangladesh. He came out of the US influence during those days and supported us without reservation.
While the government of Indira Gandhi had been gathering world support for our independence against the wishes of the US and China, it was Australia which strongly supported our cause in the UN body. As we know, a few Aussies even joined hands with our liberation fighters and fought against the Pakistan army.
Australians, though not as mad about cricket as those of us in the sub-continent, have been great supporters of our cricket and its development over the years. To the ordinary Aussies, Bangladesh is now known as a true cricket-loving nation since they witnessed Australia going down against Bangladesh in the one-day version of the game.
In recent years, particularly, with the climate change issues, Australia is one of the keenest sympathisers of Bangladesh, which suffers because of global warming without contributing significantly to the global CO2 emissions.
For professional interest, the author is currently working with some top ranking Bangladesh government experts on climate change with the support of Australian universities. In the last UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen (COP15), the former prime minister Kevin Rudd was instrumental in establishing the $10 billion global fund over three years in order to support least developed nations of Africa, the small island nations of the Pacific, and Asia -- where Bangladesh is a major contender.
Moreover, at government-to-government level, the Australian aid agency (AusAID) has been playing a major role over the last 40 years in providing educational support and support at the time of national emergencies like floods and cyclones.
If we look at the Bangladesh diaspora within Australia, as a young nation of only 40 years, Bangladeshis have their fair share of professional presence here as university teachers, doctors, engineers, agriculturists and so on. What is more important and interesting to learn is that these professionals, including the second generation and other migrant workers from Bangladesh, are known as very hard working and law abiding citizens to ordinary Aussies.
Certainly, the relations between Australia and Bangladesh have been growing stronger and stronger over the years with Bangladesh gradually maturing into a parliamentary form of democracy.
Indeed, while the 2010 election outcome in parliamentary democracy in Australia could contribute to some political uncertainty over the next three years, there is no denying the fact that this nation has been travelling smoothly during the time of global financial crisis (GFC). It has a good economic record.
Unlike other OECD nations, Australia is only the single member nation which escaped recession during the GFC with low unemployment (around 5%), low interest (around 6%) and low inflation (around 3%). This was possible only due to the fiscal stimulus package the incumbent government introduced over the last two years. Why then did the government fail to gain absolute majority, which it perhaps deserved?
There were two main reasons -- internal party political chaos within the ALP and the government's about-face on climate change commitments it had made to the electorate in the 2007 election. Certainly, the climate change issue was a major factor since the latest results show that the Greens (centre left party) won balance of power in the upper house and got a first ever member in the lower house, who will be instrumental in forming the next government.
Recently in the UK, the Tories (conservative right) formed a government with the unusual support of the Liberal Democrats (centre-left). It remains to be seen in Australia whether the centre right (L/N and independents) and centre left (Greens) go hand-in-hand, or whether the ALP and the Greens form the government. Indeed, it is a very interesting time ahead for Australian parliamentary democracy.
It certainly appears that the well-celebrated and publicised first female incumbency of the ALP paid off little with the female voters. Moreover, the ALP, immediately before the election, made another female leader the president of the party for the next three years. It remains to be seen whether it was a policy for drafting more and more female voters in the ranks or a coincidence.
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