Benjamin Reilly writes in The Conversation (20.5.15) about the recent budget and budget reply:
‘The “convergence thesis” – which holds that the main Australian political parties will, over time, converge upon near-identical policy positions on most issues – was on full display last week.
‘The Coalition government did a convincing job of producing a Labor budget, with some sops to small business, while the opposition did its best to promise more of the same, unfunded. Credible plans for a balanced budget and the much more demanding task of intergenerational equity were studiously ignored by both sides.
‘Media commentators often see this as the failings of our “political class” to step up to the challenges of leadership, and there is definitely some truth to that.
‘But there are underlying systemic pressures towards convergence that are particularly strong in Australia.