The opposition should change tactics to be effective and credible

Comments on Tony Abbott “ALP should forget light on hill and follow Hawke”, 22/09/2010, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/alp-should-forget-light-on-hill-and-follow-hawke/story-e6frg6zo-1225927537315
Abbott has performed very well since becoming the opposition leader, brought down a prime minster and almost another PM in the recent election, partly due to his stance against the ETS and branding that as a big carbon tax.

However, now the situation has changed in Australia. An election was over and the Gillard government is returned with the support of the Greens and three independents.

While it is possible that the government may not last for the full term, but that is only possibility and not certainty.

The government and the Greens may be able to get a carbon tax through the parliament.

The opposition should prepare for the possibility of a full term Gillard government, while working to aim to become government if an opportunity appears.

In this circumstance, it would be in the interest of the opposition to be constructive on a number of policy areas where it has had very different policies from the last government, such as climate change and the mining tax.

For climate change, it should look at ways to hold the government to account by forcing it to minimise costs, such as a revenue-neutral (by returning the revenue to people) and trade-neutral carbon tax.

For the mining tax, it should try to hold the government to account by forcing it to consider and move to profit based tax with a slight increase in the level of tax, that is, close to revenue-neutral. That means the tax rate should adjust when mineral prices fall to avoid the case in the future the taxation may be too low as compared to the current royalties in the States.

The profit tax should replace the State current royalties with appropriate compensations for their revenue losses.