The election everyone lost, except the system

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 11 September 2010

We're no strangers to minority governments. John Howard led one for 11 years, relying on the support of a party that steadfastly refused to unite with his - a party so separate, in fact, it was entirely excluded from the Liberals' recent negotiations with the independents.

The new arrangement does appear more fragile than the Liberal-National Coalition, so a spirit of goodwill is required on both sides of the House if this is going to work. There are already some discouraging signs: Tony Abbott's credulity-straining wish for a "kinder, gentler polity'' is clearly not shared by some of his howling, posturing frontbenchers who seem determined to undermine the new structure. Ideology might be dead, as Tony Windsor remarked, but tribalism isn't.

The claim by Christopher Pyne, among others, that the new government is not legitimate would amount to sedition if it were not so laughably self-serving. Had the independents chosen to align themselves with the Liberals and Nationals, would Pyne now be wringing his hands over his government's illegitimacy?