A lot to learn in politics

UNLIKE Australia, Papua New Guinea would never have a hung parliament following a general election.
It might and does happen at a motion of no-confidence but, then, the speaker always has the casting vote and he always votes for the side that put him there.
But Australia’s hung parliament does provide some rather interesting points for study and discussion in PNG.
The first thing that would emerge most prominent in the thoughts of all students of Papua New Guinea politics, which is absent in Australia, is the lack of numbers juggling.
Oh, there is some juggling in Australia but it is merely a tussle over three independents.
There is no question about the rest of the 73 elected leaders in the Liberal-National coalition camp and the 74 in prime minister Julia Gillard’s Labor camp. They are locked down and locked in, not in a physical way as you would expect in PNG but that is just the way the system operates. They will not move.
One or the other side requires all of the independent MPs get the 76 required to form a minority government. If they are tied at 75 apiece, they could each face a general election again.
In PNG, everybody in every camp, whether party endorsed or not, is fair game. Entire parties can and will withdraw from coalitions if they feel the grass is suddenly greener on the other side.
This is the first thing that strikes you.
In Australia, there is no question of moving in or out of camps. Power is well and truly in the hands of the three independent MPs.
And, for the first time in a long while, the independents are using their moment in the sun to their greatest advantage. This is the second thing that strikes you.
With no party or numerical support in parliament, independents traditionally were on the periphery, did not have much clout and would remain obscure throughout a parliamentary term.
Today, they are using this rare opportunity to push either side for the best deal they can get. The three “kingmaker” independent MPs, who hold the balance of power, have gone into talks with Gillard and conservative Liberal/National coalition leader Tony Abbott, making it clear to either side that they will give their allegiance to the side which adopts their policies and ideals.
They are selling their ideals on the climate, on a hospital for Tasmania, on the economy and work relations. The list runs long but they will stop at nothing until they are satisfied that the side they join will accept their demands.
This is a far different field to the kind of political power game you would see played in PNG. You will hardly ever hear of any policies or positions that a broker will hold out to the side that wants his or her votes.
In PNG, you dare stand alone and make that kind of cry, there will be a rugby union kind of pileup with you at the bottom of the heap with your breath squeezed out of you and your cries drown out by so much clamouring for you. Your mouth might be filled with so much cash you can hardly get a word out, never mind your pockets.
The other matter that strikes you is the role of the speaker. Both sides in Australia are loath to donate one of their members as the candidate for speaker because the candidate then resigns his or her party or coalition allegiance and becomes a truly neutral, impartial person dedicated to ensuring parliament and parliamentary processes and systems run properly.
In PNG, the speaker remains a member of the party he is affiliated to and, most often, as is the case with the current speaker, he remains loyal and partial to the government that put him there in the first place.
There are many more points but space will not allow. Suffice it to state that what we are witnessing in Australia is a stark reminder that there is a long way to go in this country before our politics reaches maturity.
What is happening in Australia today is also a stark reminder of what can happen when you change leadership in midstream, bring on elections thinking the electorate agrees with all you are thinking when your thoughts have hardly been made known to them and when your opponents do the exact same.