Suchergebnisse

In Australia, two‐and‐a‐half party systems are common with the Liberal and National parties, usually needing to collaborate to form governments. In Queensland, the 2008 merger of two of these state parties to create the Liberal National Party (LNP) created instead a two‐party system. This review examines the forces for the merger and prospects for the continuation of the LNP, the likelihood of change as a result of the Queensland merger in the remaining two‐and‐a‐half party systems, and how the drivers of this merger compare with those observed in studies of other non‐Australian party and electoral systems. Pressures and conditions for a merger similar to those in other, mostly European systems, were evident in the case of the LNP. The particular structure of the pre‐merger party competition and relationships was, however, a likely factor in the merger in that two collaborating parties could avoid a contested switch in party seniority. This aspect, unlikely to occur in other Australian party systems, combined with the very limited success of the LNP in gaining and holding government since the merger, does not suggest an imperative for further mergers in other Australian systems.

The Commonwealth government has offered support to farmers in the form of structural or business adjustment‐type schemes since the Loan (Farmers Debt Adjustment) Acts of 1935–1971. Since 1971, a series of more comprehensive rural reconstruction/adjustment schemes with a range of objectives from debt alleviation to encouraging some exits from agricultural industries, has been in place. While having little direct impact on the structure of these industries, the various schemes have been politically important and an indicator of how core values relating to agricultural production and rural life have changed. A review of the schemes shows an increasing focus on improving farm productivity and sustainability, accompanied by a discourse emphasising the need to promote the 'farm business', rather than to protect the 'family farm'. On the other hand, governments have also used these schemes to deliver 'welfare' outputs.

After a decade of declining votes and marginalisation within the Coalition, the future of National Party is uncertain. Will its insistence on its agrarian identity lead to its demise, will it amalgamate with federal and state Liberal parties across the country, or will it continue to be the great survivor of Australian politics?

The rural policy environment has many of the conditions that might suggest a tendency towards punctuated equilibrium. The Commonwealth has little direct power over rural space and industries, there has been a long tradition of state support for agriculture and decision‐making has generally been kept within a tight policy community, dominated by rural interests. In our review of the PAP data and policy history, we find instead an underlying movement across time and governments towards an expectation of self‐reliance for rural businesses and communities. On top of the long‐term incremental movement towards this expectation, issue attention has shifted according to political, climatological and market conditions, rather than necessarily in line with changes in policy content.

In common with other countries in the developed world, Australia and New Zealand developed an array of institutions and programs from the 1950s to the 1970s to support their agricultural sectors. From the mid-1980s they dismantled these, very rapidly in the case of New Zealand, to leave farmers and rural regions largely to market forces. This article explores the transition in Australia and New Zealand from agricultural policy based on 'protected development' to broader rural policy which includes consideration of regional development and environmentalism. We argue that the ideas and values of market liberalism are more apparent in rural policy in Australia and New Zealand than in the EU and US and we propose reasons for that, including differences in economic context, cultural ideas and political institutions.