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Malcolm and the election day puzzle
Volume 30 #31
January 13, 2016
Oral invasion Let’s all get orally invaded, shall we? Owing to the unprecedented expansion of roadside drug (saliva) testing, a useful fact sheet has been produced by Lismore-based Bolt Findlay Solicitors and the Northern Rivers Greens. Firstly, it explains the obvious: that police have the power to stop any vehicle and require the driver to submit to saliva testing. But the oral test only detects either THC (found in cannabis), methamphetamine or ecstasy. The saliva tests do not detect the presence of opiates or cocaine, which are detected in blood or urine. So far, we have learned it’s an incomplete test, as driving while under the influence of all these substances is illegal. The fact sheet says maximum penalties include fines of around $1,100 and minimum three-month licence disqualification upon conviction. Want to decline the demands to lick a stick with unknown chemicals on it? Sorry, that’s illegal, and carries the same penalties as being convicted of having small traces of these three drugs in your system. But at least you do have the right to remain silent. The fact sheet says: ‘If you do tell the police about your drug use – for example that you used the drug the night before you were tested – the police will usually record that in the Facts Sheet. The Facts Sheet is the summary document which the police present to the court and which the magistrate usually accepts as the factual basis of the circumstances of the charge.’ The fact sheet also helpfully suggests contacting your local MP to voice your concerns ‘if you feel these laws are unfairly persecuting drivers who are not actually impaired by drugs while driving.’ As for legal help, it says, ‘Legal Aid is not available for these cases, because there is no jail penalty. Legal Aid might give you advice though. For legal representation, you will need to pay a lawyer. Or you can appear in court yourself and tell the magistrate what you want to say.’ And with any legal-looking document in the public realm, the authors say their fact sheet should be considered as information only and not be treated as legal advice. The real concern of course, is that these tests are known to produce false positives and do not detect impairment, only presence, no matter how small. It’s also clogging the courts and takes the focus away from much more important police duties. The correlation between these tests and reducing accidents is also unknown. This is about as unscientific and intrusive as you can get, but is everything you could expect from a herd of dull uninspiring meat sacks – the NSW Liberal National coalition. Does this expensive program (known to be $40 per test) engender or diminish trust between the community and police? Hans Lovejoy, editor News tips are welcome: editor@echo.net.au
S
o with the sillier bit of the silly season behind them, some, at least, of the pundits are drifting back to what they consider their real task – which will consist largely of febrile speculation about the election date. It is, of course, Malcolm Turnbull’s call, and he is clearly not too keen on following the urgings of some of his supporters to go early, go hard. With overweening selfconfidence and considerable justification, he believes he can beat Bill Shorten (or anyone else for that matter) any time, any place, so there is no hurry. He is rather enjoying settling in to the prime ministership, and an election would be more of a distraction than a vindication; he has all the vindication he needs in the polls and public plaudits he has been accorded. But his superego is not entirely shared by many of his colleagues; while they agree with the leader’s conviction that the election itself is pretty much in the bag, history proves that there will be a few of their seats lost, and the fewer the better. Their feeling is that this is just about as good as it will get and there are some reasons to believe that they may well be right. The overriding worry is the economy. China is still a big unknown – there is no guarantee that it will continue to underpin Australia indefinitely, and the mood among both consumers and investors is fragile. The debt and deficit situation is deteriorating and that infallible index of greed and fear, the stock market, is described, delicately, as volatile – meaning that it could
crash at any moment. The new treasurer, Scott Morrison, has been a bit of a disappointment: nothing is actually being achieved and most of his statements sound a trifle Hockeyish – the ultimate putdown. His forthcoming tax manifesto is a source of apprehension, but the May budget will be, as The Australian would no doubt describe it, the real test; if it tanks, or even if it is seen to tank, Morrison, and therefore Turnbull, could be in trouble.
never do. It would give him a chance to really clean out the trash accumulated by the last two years, and yes, we are talking about you, Peter Dutton. It could never be the kind of purge Turnbull would secretly long for, but it would be a big help. There will be some things he cannot control – a few of the less Neanderthal conservatives will have to be preserved, along with state balances. And the majority of those who have been promoted as part of his
A quick election would reinforce the prime minister’s mandate in the party room the way a mere reshuffle could never do. by Mungo MacCallum So there are some economic reasons to go to the people before any shit hits the fan. But the same applies to the politics. It has become clear that the Abbottistas have not given up, and have no intention to do so. The man himself is still bouncing around and his chief enforcers, Eric Abetz and Kevin Andrews, are pretending to be some kind of government in exile. They will now be joined by Jamie Briggs, while the fifth column is alive and well in the bowels of the party. But, as the finally downstanding Mal Brough has reminded us, it is not just Turnbull’s detractors that are a problem: some of his biggest boosters are not too flash either. One of the major advantages of a quick and relatively clean election is that it would reinforce the prime minister’s mandate not only among the voters, but in the party room in the way a mere reshuffle can
push for power have to stay – with the possibility, even the likelihood, that Brough stays permanently on the backburner, he will have enough potential assassins. But an election, and the promise of a new start, should cement Turnbull’s authority – and it might give him yet another public lift if he unveils something closer to a genuinely 21st century ministry. A few extra women would help for starters. But having said all that, there is a real risk that an election would not really change the basic impasse of a hostile senate. Turnbull is keen to get rid of the minor parties through the medium of electoral reform; but even if he can push this through – the simplest and fairest way would be to allow preferences for parties above the line – there are bound to be some intransigents. The Greens may lose a seat or two, but a few at least of the
intransigents from the micro parties have established their profiles sufficiently to give them a chance of survival. Jacqui Lambie could hold on in Tasmania; Glenn Lazarus and David Leyonhjelm are chances, and even Bob Day and Ricky Muir might be roughies. John Madigan could get enough Liberal preferences for him to become a semipermanent fixture and there is the threat of extra candidates for Nick Xenophon. And of course the lower quotas needed in a doubledissolution election make things worse, not better. And on top of that a double dissolution would mean another halfsenate election out of kilter, in 2018. Turnbull might well be right; it would all be far more trouble than it would be worth. And, just to convince him that he already has enough to deal with, there is the looming spectre of Barnaby Joyce. It seems inevitable that the unpredictable maverick will succeed the stolid and compliant Warren Truss in the foreseeable future – perhaps within weeks. Turnbull’s new deputy would be, by definition, uncontrollable; the only way to get rid of him would be to break the coalition, which is, in the circumstances, unthinkable. Despite all the hype, the Nationals leader will not have all that much power; he is not, as they say, a heartbeat away from the Lodge. But he can be, and almost certainly will be, a bloody nuisance. An amount of boatrocking will be unavoidable. All the more reason, then, to limit as far as possible; leave things as they are, try to keep the course steady, and just keep bailing.
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