Taking a leaf from the last successful Labor minority government

There remains the distinct possibility Malcolm Turnbull and his Liberals will be leading a minority government, where negotiation and compromise are often the first ingredients which go into any legislative program. Is he up to it?

Labor’s parliamentary strategist and shadow infrastructure and transport minister, Anthony Albanese, has serious reservations about Malcolm Turnbull’s negotiating skills.

“We’ll be prepared to work with the cross benchers.”

“Labor will take a constructive approach,” Albanese assured Australians.

“We’ll be prepared to work with the cross benchers.

“It is important those discussions begin immediately and whether there is a majority or minority government remains to be seen,” he said.

One of the things the Coalition executed poorly between 2010–2013 when Labor was last in power, was maintaining ongoing discussions with the crossbenchers.

“That’s why the scoreboard was 595 to nil at full time at the end of the 43rd Parliament,” Albanese said.

“They behaved as complete oppositionists.”

“And we won’t take that arrogant approach the Coalition had.

“Compare their rhetoric about that Parliament between 2010–2013 that they said wasn’t legitimate.

“They said it didn’t have any authority and they behaved as complete oppositionists.

“They were very destructive whereas now, they are talking about reaching out across the parliament and their rhetoric is very different,” Albanese said.

Deputy Labor leader and shadow foreign minister Taya Plibersek paid tribute to Labor’s number one negotiator in the 2010–13 period, then-PM Julia Guillard.

“Julia Gillard did an extraordinary job during that parliament to keep it on track, passing close to 500 pieces of legislation during that minority government,” Plibersek said.

“We got through really big reforms.”

“I would put my money on Julia Gillard’s negotiating skills over Malcolm Turnbull’s any day of the week.

“I’d be very surprised if he’s able to bring the same sense of progress to this hung parliament that we see in prospect that we were able to bring to the minority government that we ran.

“We got through really big reforms, like the National Disability Insurance Scheme, like the Gonski school education funding reforms, and we did it in a way that we are still proud of — the fact we achieved those great reforms,” she said.

This article originally appeared in the Labor Herald.