From The Punch by Barnaby Joyce 05 JUN 05:35AM

This first piece should inspire the question about the political basics. What is it that differentiates the political parties? Or is philosophy now no more than a bib handed out to be worn before the political chamber game, a contrived or acquired vocal tribalism? A tribalism based on the coincidence of the party a person joined, rather than what they believe - as what they believe has either no genuine differentiation, or does not exist. Is politics more of a personal career path than a desire to pursue through a public manner a personal philosophy?

In a country where it is compulsory to vote one must not scare that 20 per cent who determine the outcome. These people by reason of their capacity to change votes live in the political middle. Maybe the political structure of the major parties is reflecting those tepid waters.

Every political pressure group tells us they are part of this middle ground, but are they? Are Greens really discerning in where their preferences go, or is their musing at election times no more than a ploy to move all policy in their direction and, regardless, they will always be of the Left. On the Right, are those who voted for One Nation before it imploded and disappeared into history ever going sit comfortably with Labor’s immigration policy? Is the political paradigm of Australia to look after the centre with no more than a cursory platitude to the edge as the edge has nowhere else to go?

If this is the case then maybe the Greens are more cunning than we give them credit for, securing territory left vacant by Labor which is to the far Left but then talking about where their preferences go - as if there really is any possibility of them going to anywhere but Labor in the seats that matter.

Maybe Labor is more cunning than we give them credit for. By allowing the charade to continue, there is the possibility that the Greens are in a political play that is nothing more than an informal coalition with Labor. For Labor when it counts the Greens can be counted on - stimulus packages, alcopops tax, blah blah blah. It’s all a little green dance, then the word “yes” for Labor.

The Right has only political commentators to ventilate right issues. They do not have a political party like the Left has the Greens. Labor has secured the centre and the Greens are protecting their flank and the polling says at much. Mr and Mrs Rudd go to church on Sunday and we all feel safe that he is an economic conservative, he said so, ready to smack those naughty selfish neo-liberal bankers and protect us from scum-of-the-earth people smugglers, the worst form of life, apparently, so I suppose Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Idi Amin all got off lightly.

Like most, my views on issues vary from Right to centre and on odd occasions, predominantly around economics, they may by some be deemed to be Left. I believe that two retailers with 80 per cent market share is not a market, it is a duopoly that has the market presence to exploit, and the political clout over the middle parties to be sustained, and good little salaried troopers to make sure that is the case. Small business will not exist much beyond the modern serfdom of “show us your income and we will determine your rent” shopping malls if we do not get a Trade Practices Act with teeth and an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ( ACCC) with determination.

One only has to look at the ACCC’s lack of enforcement of a law passed by this nation on predatory pricing, the Birdsville Amendment, to know that at times they believe that they can discern whether the nation’s laws should be enforced. That makes them pretty powerful people to have dinner with as they obviously have more power than the Parliament. Now that view, as with the belief in the single desk for the orderly sale of wheat, would be termed by the commentariat as “left-leaning”.

I believe also that the ETS is the most fraudulent job-destroying policy waffle that I would not vote for, even in a pink fit. That would have to be “right leaning”, some would say toppling over.

The point being in our political suite of desires is where do we go in politics to hear from the right as the Greens deliver the message for the left, and the major parties are in the centre. The Left have the Greens and around 8 per cent to 9 per cent, if the polls in the paper are correct, is a handy little political earner for Labor. Labor talk about party discipline, as they would, as the last thing they want is for the right to increase the size of their political net by having a good lieutenant to cover their flank.