The National Party is provincial, rural, protectionist, church-based, conservative, mind-our-own-business, pro-Commonwealth, and ardently monarchist. The Liberal Party is metropolitan, urban, capitalist, secular, libertarian, make-the-world-anew, pro-American, and at least fifty per cent anti-monarchist. The Nationals have in recent years moved very much into the shadow of the Liberals.
But now, Australia has a hung Parliament. This is a chance for the Nationals, and for several Independents who are very much of like mind and who are likewise quite open to the content, even if not necessarily to the name, of agrarian socialism, to reassert themselves as a force in their own right. Among other good things, and aided and abetted by the Alternative Vote, that could, should and would reawaken the spirit of Bob Santamaria and the Democratic Labor Party.
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It's a minority party with little public support. Hardly has much legitimacy to start setting an agenda, admirable though its ideals may be.
ReplyDeleteBut there's a hung Parliament.
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