Is+parliament+dominated+by+party+politics?


 * Monday, February 21, 2011 **



Prime Minister Julia Gillard has justified a deal she struck with some crossbenchers to secure parliamentary passage of the government's controversial flood levy. She says the compromises to previously-announced spending cuts represent less than three per cent of the relief package. Ms Gillard has secured the backing of the Greens and some crossbenchers for Labor's 1.8 billion dollar taxpayer levy by rolling back savings originally targeted in raising the 5.6 billion dollars for the flood recovery package. Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten has told parliament there was no contradiction by Treasurer Wayne Swan when he said he'd have to find additional budget savings to pay for the flood package. The government still needs one more vote to get its flood levy through the Senate. ................................................................................................................................................................................................

so girls this is an example of the government having to 'water down' (no pun intended) its bill by agreeing to spending cuts for this area in order to get the crossbenchers to vote for the bill - in theory a government has a mandate to govern (though in this case the labor party doesn't have a majority so perhaps it is harder to say this) so it should not have to make deals like this in order to make a law.