Coalition of the willing

Peter Farago
VICTORIA’S Liberal and National parties’ decision to reform a coalition that dissolved with the defeat of the Kennett Government can only be a positive for the state.
But that doesn’t mean the conservative side of state politics is any closer to winning government in the eyes of the electorate.
Ted Baillieu and Peter Ryan this week announced the inevitable: that the Liberal and National parties would climb back into bed to tackle a Labor Government now into its third term in office.
And their decision copped a fairly typical, and perhaps outdated, response from Government MPs.
Member for Lara John Eren, who was elected when the Liberals were wiped out in Geelong in 2002, fired off a broadside claiming the Nationals had sold out the people of Lara by rejoining the coalition.
But how did the Nationals sell out Lara, given the party hasn’t run a candidate in the safe Labor seat in the past decade?
Mr Eren says the Nationals agreed to the Kennett Government cuts that shut Norlane Primary School.
The Member for Lara then listed a series of spending initiatives in the electorate he said was done to “undo the damage done by the last Liberal/National coalition”.
Of course, Mr Eren failed to mention that Labor was spending the massive surplus the Kennett Government created during its controversial term in office when the conservatives were undoing the damage of the Cain/Kirner Labor government of the 1980s.
But why let that little gem of information get in the way of a good political beating?
It just shows that both sides of politics are the same – if you can’t find a new story to tell, just blame the previous government because dead governments can’t defend themselves.
The Liberal-National alliance is a neat fit to keep a government that’s almost a decade old become more accountable to the public.
It’s a timely alliance for the conservatives, given the growing number of spot fires of community protest the Government is trying to put out over bay dredging, desalination, a north-south pipeline, fluoridation in Geelong and Warrnambool, not to forget public transport woes.
But what will it mean for Geelong?
Well, not much, because the conservatives haven’t been in the city since Ian Cover and Alister Paterson were ousted in 2002.
Unless a Liberal-National coalition can come up with some way to focus its attention on Geelong, the conservative side of politics stands to remain in the wilderness for some time yet.