Disciplined Parties, Party Goals and Winning Coalitions in the Australian Parliament Since 2007

Date: Wednesday 3rd June 2013
Time: 13:30
Room: 1WN 2.4
Speaker: Associate Professor Rodney Smith

Abstract

The dominant understanding of Australian party politics focuses on the stable ‘two party’ Labor versus Liberal-National contest for control of the executive at national and state level.  When attention is turned to Australian parliamentary politics, however, the ‘two party’ model typically does not work.  Instead, we need models of Australian parliamentary politics that take account of multiple parties with varying strengths and goals.  This paper applies established formal models of party power and coalition-building to recent party politics in the Australian Commonwealth Parliament.  The results indicate that the common idea that minor parties control ‘the balance of power’ in the Australian Senate is misleading in two ways.  First, the balance of power, as defined by the ‘median legislator’ position, is often held by either the Government or Opposition parties.  Second, rather than being fixed, the balance of power can change from one contentious bill to the next.  Further complexity is added by the fact that the aims pursued by political parties in the Parliament are not limited to policy-seeking goals, but include vote-seeking and office-seeking goals.  The challenge for the major parties, and especially for parties in Government, is to respond in strategic, disciplined and flexible ways to these changing parliamentary conditions.  These points are illustrated through consideration of four bills introduced in the post-2007 period of Labor Government.

Biography

University of Sydney Associate Prof. Rodney Smith's current research interests are Australian political parties and elections, political ethics and corruption, and religion and politics in liberal democracies. His books are Against the Machines (2006), Keywords in Australian Politics (co-authored, 2006), Australian Political Culture (2001) and Politics in Australia (edited, three editions from 1989 to 1997). He is currently part of a team completing a major ARC-funded study of public sector whistleblowers in Australia.