Two Party Folly

Yippee! Another election! (The folly of believing in a two party race – which it is not). Another year for the ‘hung bunnies’ to do their thing. And what you may ask is a hung bunny? The best explanation I have heard was in Melbourne in early 1970 when a gathering of the Young Libs were being addressed by a senior Lib member. (May have been Robert Southey). His talk went something like this.

“The greatest asset of any political party is the hung bunny. A rabbit is a source of sustenance – food, the fur is great for gloves and even coats – comfort, they are placid and easy to control when held in captivity. For a political party the HBs can be relied on for their vote – sustenance, for their loyalty – comfort, for their belief in the decisions of the party regardless of how inane – they are placid and controllable”.

He went on to say those listening could be bunnies or take an active role in the party, remembering the people portrayed on the front pages of the media as the public faces of the party were not necessarily the ones making the big decisions, in fact some were just high profile hung bunnies.

“The greatest danger to a major party is the election of smaller parties with public awareness platforms because they can use their influence to achieve their objectives by negotiation. If the Australian population ever wake up to the power of these parties we are in trouble, because, we are not in the business of being the fairy godmother to the populace, we are here to govern as we see fit”. He continued with, “The prosperity of a country is determined by business and the population, not by governments. The latter are good at restricting and controlling growth, they are not good at growth promotion”.

Bring on public awareness platforms, such as, domestic violence, animal cruelty, climate education, river quality, corporate greed etc. etc.