....and now back to Party Political Blogging
For eight long years, Johnny Howard has complained about the Senate, where the ALP, Dems and Greens have had a combined majority, not passing Liberal Party legislation. He has gone on and on about him having a mandate as the Government. On Sunday, we saw Johnny's last whinge about this and so now my last chance to whinge about his whinge:
http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/political_transcripts/article_1684.asp
"LAURIE OAKES: Now, do you think the Labor Party should take account of the fact that it, it can’t block stuff after the middle of next year, and therefore maybe should let you have it now?
JOHN HOWARD: Well I think they should let through anything that the public has clearly given us a mandate for, but I don’t think they will let through everything that the public’s given us a mandate for. I’m not that unrealistic…"
Mr Howard, were the members of the ALP, Greens and Democrats not elected by the Australian people? I had thought they were. And I had understood that in our democracy, each and every elected member must represent the Australian people in the way they have promised to do. There is no part of Democracy that says that the people we elect should simply abandon their platforms and vote with the Government.
It’s a simple system. If a party has a majority in both houses, as the Coalition will do in a few months time, then their members have a mandate to pass legislation through both those houses. If a Party does not have a majority in both houses, then the Australian people have not voted to trust them with such a mandate.
I had thought that after having attended a fine public school, and 30 years in Parliament, that Mr Howard would have a better understanding of Australia’s democratic system.