Majority government could be silver lining: ACCI
THE Gillard Government has been hamstrung by compromise and business owners are frustrated that "politics seems to have trumped policies", the chief executive of a key industry group has written.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Peter Anderson, in an opinion piece in Business Excellence magazine, revealed the ACCI would target the mining tax, carbon tax and workers' superannuation levy rises as key issues for the 2013 federal election.
He said that as 2013 was an election year, politics would remain centre-stage, but there could be silver lining if a majority government was elected "of one political persuasion or another".
"While an election may break this impasse, there's no point if an elected government does not have a good plan for economic management," Mr Anderson wrote.
"During the 2010 general election, ACCI was very disappointed that neither side of politics did much more than run up populist short-term agendas.
"Nothing would please me more than a bidding war between Coalition and Labor about whose plans do more (and more) for the private sector and small business."
Mr Anderson said that while having independents were not a bad thing, the current experience in Canberra was not just a minority parliament, but a minority government as well.
"It's one thing to have minor parties or independents take rough edges off government legislation," he wrote.
"It's another for government itself to be hamstrung by compromise on compromise."
