politicalowl

The steady decline of the major political parties in Australia shows no signs of ending. This graph is from the ABC's website this morning: Click to enlarge Liberals should be thinking about adding someone else to their Coalition alongside the National Party. And the Labor lot should stop complaining about the Greens. With their vote in the mid-30s Labor shoulf accept that it will not be winning anything in its own right.

A reminder at the weekend that Australia has a Coalition government. Appearing on the ABC’s  Insiders , the leader of the junior governing party, Warren Truss, ever so politely, warned Treasurer Joe Hockey that he would ignore the views of the National Party about foreign investment at the government’s peril. At issue is the decision the Treasurer must make about the takeover of Graincorp by an American grain trader. For the Nationals that is a no-no.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott should frame today’s  Courier-Mail  front page and keep it on his desk as a permanent reminder of the difficult times ahead. Australian politics has not seen the likes of Clive Palmer in a position of power before.