Favourite Martin is in safe territory

"A POLITICAL tsunami" - the phrase of Country Liberal Party senator Nigel Scullion - may be over-dramatising it, but there is no doubt Saturday's Northern Territory election was a train-wreck for the CLP. As predicted in The Australian by Malcolm Mackerras almost three weeks ago, and by our Newspoll last weekend, the Labor Government of Clare Martin has been returned with an increased majority. But the sheer size of that majority, with a 12 per cent swing likely to deliver Labor 18 or 19 seats in the territory's 25-seat legislative assembly, shows the unparalleled value of one commodity - incumbency - in contemporary politics in Australia. But incumbency by itself is not enough, and the CLP duly iced Ms Martin's cake by demonstrating the two qualities, flawed leadership and internal division, that are poison to the Australian electorate. Like unsuccessful West Australian opposition leader Colin Barnett and his canal from the Kimberley to Perth, CLP leader Denis Burke offered voters "the vision thing" in the shape of a $1.13 billion powerline to Queensland. He then proceeded, again on the model of Mr Barnett, to make a hard sell considerably harder by showing that he, or his advisers, could not get the basic arithmetic right in the party's budget documents. Along with the sniping he received courtesy of some former colleagues, those failings helped Mr Burke lose his own seat as he led into oblivion the party that dominated territory politics for 27 years.

On the positive side, Ms Martin's performance since her victory in 2001 clearly convinced voters she is, for now, the very model of what they look for in a territory leader. State and territory elections, increasingly presidential, are fought on services and law and order, and voters value somebody who listens to their concerns and delivers services efficiently and fairly without wasting their hard-earned money. Ms Martin has done more than enough over four years to demonstrate she is a safe pair of hands. Indeed, once again, on Saturday, we saw the giant conundrum of contemporary Australian politics, which is that the conservative forces have a dearth of plausible leadership at state and territory level, while Labor cannot marshall its best and brightest to serve in Canberra.

While armchair commentators in the southern states might dismiss as populism - even Hansonism - Ms Martin's policy of jailing habitual drunks who refuse treatment, they do not have to live with the same daily realities as territorians themselves, white and indigenous alike. Far from being draconian, the new policy will only kick in when a repeat offender has been dragged into custody no fewer than six times over a three-month period. Tolerance is fine until it becomes tacit acquiescence, and there are plenty of indigenous leaders telling us that alcoholism and substance abuse are not a symptom of Aboriginal disadvantage, but a direct cause. Before denouncing territorians as having capitulated to the politics of race, critics might like to note that no fewer than a fifth of members in the new assembly will be Aboriginal - a record that no other legislature in Australia comes close to matching.

Newshawk: Empower Activists http://www.napnt.org/donate.html
Pubdate: Mon, 20 June 2005
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Australian
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