Labor is indignant that the Liberals are apparently siphoning green voters away from them. They even look likely to lose a seat as a result and, more worrying, the Greens party looks set to win the balance of power in the Upper House.
Both major parties are dancing around the edge of the ardent followers of environmentalism, the new godless religion. Green-inclined voters mostly have no allegiance to the conventional left/ right dichotomy. Comprising an estimated 12 per cent of the electorate, their political stance is one of "rational ignorance".
"Rationally ignorant" voters see little need to familiarise themselves with the details of the mainstream political parties, especially since those parties have converging policies that are underpinned by fiscal conservatism.
Indeed, as the next government is certain to be Labor or Liberal, some "rationally ignorant" voters feel they can cross the two-party abyss and vote for the Greens. In doing so they are able to indulge their moral virtue knowing their votes will not elect a green government.
The ALP has traditionally looked to harvest most green-leaning votes as preferences. As such, it has traditionally been more generous in heisting the taxpayer and consumer dollar and allocating those funds to voter-friendly causes.
The Al Gore fictional scenarios and the exaggerations of the Stern report have reinforced the environment as the most profitable venue for such expenditures.
The Switkowski report on nuclear power has added further noise into the energy and environment dimensions of the Victorian election debate. But any nuclear plant in Victoria is decades away, even if there is a fully fledged carbon tax.
For its part, Labor is firing environmental salvos from all cylinders. It even introduces its energy policy with the absurd claim that the state's energy use has brought temperature increases, less rainfall and increased bushfire risk.
It has announced a new $1 billion-plus energy tax in the form of increased renewable requirements and will foist additional energy-saving costs on new buildings.
Labor will not have a bar of a new dam, and tries to keep a straight face while it claims its water policies will provide 50 years of security.
The Liberals have responded by engaging in environmentalist talk backed up by dollops of taxpayer and regulatory-driven funding. Examples of these are subsidies for solar power, clean coal, water recycling, rain water tanks, and new regulations for container deposit legislation.
The Liberals say they will build the much needed dam but feel the need to sweeten the pill with expensive water-recycling policies, an unnecessarily self-indulgent desalination plant and yet another new national park.
Liberal leader Ted Baillieu has not gone as far as the British Conservative Party leader in environmentally outflanking Labor. Instead, Baillieu has picked policies designed to waste as little money as possible and to prise away some additional "rationally ignorant" green voters while minimising the consequent economic harm.
But no politician can doff their hats to the new environmental gods without incurring economic costs.
All this bidding for votes means hitting people in the pocket while pretending not to do so or trying to persuade the target voters that their own pockets will be immune. This makes the democratic auction system an unsavoury business.
And even though the major parties recognise a budgetary constraint on spending, the GST bonus and increased taxes as a by-product of house-price inflation have mightily eased those pressures.
In all Australian states, Labor, once it abandoned its uncontrolled pandering to interest groups, quickly mastered the rules of the new democracy auction.
As a result, Labor has established itself as the normal party of power at the state level. It basically only expects to lose state office when it goes too far in accommodating special interests, or gets mired in scandals.
It is yet to be seen whether a conservative leader can break this mould. Baillieu thinks he can do so. Saturday will reveal if he can successfully couple his political personableness with appeals to the "rationally ignorant" green-inclined voter using versions of Labor's wasteful spending and taxing measures.
ADVERTISEMENT
No comments:
Post a Comment