Canada and Australia - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 147

Forestry was an area reserved for the states in the 1901 Constitution.
Most of them encouraged settlement and logging with no regard for con-
servation. In the 1920s the Queensland Department of Lands made plans
to open rain forests in the north to settlement. The head of the Forestry
Board, E. H. F. Swain, opposed this, arguing that the Crown lands should
be held in trust. Furthermore, he began a program of replanting. he
outcome was an investigation by a royal commission that concluded that
“Queensland needs no forestry science for present requirements,” and
“There is abundance and enough timber for all.” 10
Like Britain and the United States, Australia has a two-party system,
Labor versus the Liberals, with the proviso that the Liberals are in a per-
manent coalition with the small National Party. Labor is the oldest party,
having been established in several of the colonies prior to federation.
Moreover, it was the first labor party in the world to actually govern a
nation when it took power in 1904. Its main opposition over the years has
been the Liberal Party, which governed from 1949 to 1972, and several
times since. To achieve a majority in Parliament, the Liberals formed a
coalition with the Country Party (now called the National Party). This
was not a logical combination because the Liberals were promarket and
antigovernment intervention while the Country Party wanted govern-
ment intervention on behalf of farmers. Opposition to Labor united them.
In 1975 the Country Party changed its name to the National Party in a
bid to attract nonrural votes. The Liberals are, in fact, the more conserva-
tive party compared to Labor, and have advocated free-market policies
such as deregulation since the 1980s. The Liberal-National coalition came
to power under the leadership of John Howard by defeating Labor in the
1996 election. Yet while the Liberals have controlled the Commonwealth
level, all six states had Labor governments. Voting is compulsory, enforced
by a $50 income tax credit, which is said to encourage middle-of-the-road
voters to go to the polls, strengthening moderate policies.
Labor won the 2007 federal election with 83 seats to 65 for the Liberal-
National coalition. The new prime minister was Kevin Rudd, who imme-
diately signed the Kyoto Protocol, an action Howard had refused to take.
Rudd also apologized to the aboriginal people for their mistreatment. His
personal popularity faded quickly, however, and he lost party leadership
3 years later to Julia Gillard, prompting another federal election. This pro-
duced a muddled situation. Labor and the Liberal-National coalition each
won 72 seats in the House of Representatives, four short of a majority.
Three independents and the sole Green Party representative backed Labor,