AFTA update

From AFTA’s chief executive, Jayson Westbury

THE good old Australian Constitution and section 44 (dual citizenship) of said document has taken its toll on Australian politics and this weekend (Sat 28th Jul) will be a true manifestation of the rule stated by section 44. What this is all about is that only an Australian can sit in our Parliament, and as a true patriot I think that is fair enough. For what we hope are the last politicians to ever be tripped by section 44 (we can only hope that all future ones can fill in the form correctly) there will be five by-elections taking place this weekend - four where all of the sitting members held both British and Australian citizenship, and one for family reasons.

For those serious travel folk who like me love to follow the cut & thrust of politics it will be almost like a mini election. No doubt TV viewing and a few chops on the BBQ are planned, and we are in for a close call.

The facts: seats in question – Braddon (Tas) held by Labor by 2.2%, Fremantle (WA) held by Labor by 7.5%, Longman (Qld) held by Labor by 0.8%, Mayo (SA) held by Centre Alliance (formerly Nick Xenophon party) by 5%, and finally Perth (WA) held by Labor by 3.3%.

This weekend the Federal Coalition really wants to break with tradition and win some seats. Historically, sitting governments very rarely win by- elections, either by losing the seats they have (the government does not currently hold any of the seats in question) or by not winning new seats.

But with all the hype and the way Canberra has been rolling these last few months and the principal reason for why these by-elections have been called, it is reasonable to think that the government might just get its hands on one or maybe two of these seats. As such the label Super Saturday has been placed on the weekend’s polls and I am sure it will make for interesting newspaper reading and for the die hard, TV watching on Sat night.

So no matter what your political views are, this will be an interesting weekend for sure. To finish off this week’s column with some interesting history, the SA seat of Mayo has a long distinguished history of Liberal party royalty. Mayo was held by Alexander Downer from 1984 until 2008 when he retired. He was a former Foreign Minister and in fact the Minister responsible for the creation of the DFAT Smartraveller Campaign that continues today and has always been respected by the travel industry. Downer was in fact the leader of the Liberal Party in the 90s and was succeeded by Dr John Hewson who I think is best remembered for his explanation of GST and birthday cakes.

At this by-election the Liberals will be represented by Downer’s daughter Georgina, but from all of the pre-polling there is a contest to be had, and we will have to wait and see if history can be written.