Almost 20 years ago when Gough Whitlam was tossed out once by Sir John Kerr and then again by the Australian electorate, Malcolm Fraser led his Liberal coalition into the House of Representatives Chamber where they overflowed into the Opposition benches, there were so many of them. He also won a historic Senate majority of 6 seats.
Surprisingly, Fraser, with this massive mandate from the Australian people, did very little with it. He basically sat on his bum for seven years while introducing piecemeal reform like the Family Court and SBS, but wasted his opportunity to deliver real legislative and economic reforms that the conservatives had been trying to get through the Senate for years, such as deregulation, lowering of income tax, smaller government and tariff reduction, leaving the Australian industrial marketplace hopelessly overprotected and uncompetitive for years. It's fairly safe to say that Malcolm Fraser was at this time more hated by Liberal than Labor voters because of this betrayal of their wishes.
John Howard, as Treasurer, tried to introduce the reforms, but Fraser overrode him every time, and eventually Howard became so pissed off with his leader he tried to resign.
Malcolm Fraser will always be remembered by many as the guy who 'snuck' into the Prime Ministership because of John Kerr's decision to rid the electorate of a government unable to govern and let the people decide. As soon as the Houses were dissolved, the Australian electorate were given their say and voted Fraser in. And how.
But he is also remembered as the guy who had a huge mandate and failed to deliver on it. That will be very much uppermost in John Howard's mind today as he faces at least 3 years of a Senate that is his to do with as he wishes. The majority won today will enable some true reform - on the industrial relations front, on the media and communications front, as well as union reform in areas such as education.
All these areas have been on the table for some years - it's no secret that Howard has been trying to force through this kind of legislation but has been blocked by Senate numbers. Those who voted for the Liberals are well aware of them. So it's also safe to say he has been given a mandate to deliver them.
The Australian public does not often give its Government control of both Houses, even if there was some voter confusion this year over preference deals. The populace will be expecting Howard to deliver. His speech today was all about humility and being careful not to splash his newfound power around, but this was (hopefully) lip service and he'll get down to some real reforms in the next 3 years.
If he doesn't he'll go the way of Malcolm Fraser, and in quick order. Even less than handing a two-house majority to its Government does the Australian public like having its mandate taken to the cleaners by a leader unmindful of its gift.
If Howard doesn't deliver he will go down as Fraser Mark II. And he knows this.
But also he knows too much reform is a bad thing. Don't be giving the public indigestion. He knows that if he doesn't abuse it, he will get 18 Senators in 2007, thus extending the Senate Majority till 2010.
You can get a lot done in six years.
Posted by: Scott Wickstein | Saturday, 30 October 2004 at 00:03