Now Tony Abbott is clearly a very pedantic man; he sees everything in black and white and is loathe to acknowledge any shades of grey. He has made that clear in his adherence to the literal meaning of his official title of Opposition Leader. He feels a compulsion to live up to the name and oppose everything the other side of politics puts forward.
He is incapable of acknowledging that anything the government does has any merit, because his title tells him so.
He has said as much. He has said that his job is to oppose the government, come what may.
Since we have inherited our political terminology from the Westminster system that evolved over the centuries in an England that is very different from twenty-first century Australia, perhaps it’s time we changed the wording of our institutions. I know it’s too much too expect any change to our inherited adversarial system; that much was shown in the results of our Republic referendum. We are just too conservative for that, but would it need a constitutional change to simply change the title of ‘Opposition Leader’ to ‘Alternative Leader’?
If he was styled Alternative Leader, maybe he would take that just as literally, and actually give us a workable, costed alternative policy, rather than the relentless negative opposition he now delivers. And if that works, perhaps we could throw in some more useful words for him to consider, like ‘constructive’ and ‘helpful’.
Or is that too much to hope for?
Mick Fauntlero,
Port Macquarie
