By ABC's Barrie Cassidy Friday 31 October 2014

Photo: The approach of the Coalition and Labor is based purely on whether they are in government or in opposition. (News Online Brisbane)

The reforms around the GST, ETS and fuel excise will inevitably come, but thanks to the self interest of politicians on both sides, it will be via a very long and rocky road, writes Barrie Cassidy.

It's almost inevitable that one day Australia will have:

• A GST with a broader base and probably an increased rate.
• An emissions trading scheme in some form.
• A fuel excise tied to inflation and endorsed by both houses of parliament.

In the meantime everything else is politics. And it won't be pretty.

The nature of politics in this country is so adversarial, parlous and poisonous, that addressing the big global challenges and reforming federalism and the tax system will take many years when it should and could be done in the life of a parliament.

And for that there is plenty of blame to go around. Too often commentators slam one side or the other when neither are virtuous and neither consistent. The approach of the Coalition and Labor is based purely on whether they are in government or in opposition.

Unless it's national security, damn the national interest.

The rot set in during the Rudd-Gillard years. Make that the Rudd-Gillard-Abbott years because Tony Abbott's performance in opposition was just as relevant to the end game as that of the two ALP prime ministers.

When Abbott stood in the parliament on Monday and said that "just for once it might be possible for us in this parliament ... to have a mature debate rather than a screaming match", horse laughs could be heard around the country.

Here was the most aggressive, brutal (and successful) opposition leader ever demanding what he had never offered.

Only now in Government - as he told The Australian - he intends to become a more consultative and more inclusive leader.

That the reforms he proposes are so urgently needed only serve to underline the dilemma the country faces. Having been so effective in opposition, Abbott's past has come back to haunt him. Finally in Government, and as a driver of reform, he is now the wrong messenger.

And Labor too - on the GST and fuel indexation - is letting the country down.

The party is so scarred by the pummelling it took in government that it can no longer see straight. In their minds, it is way too early to give their tormentors a break on anything. The mindset right now is to give their opponents a piece of their own medicine.

It seems to escape them that the Hawke government introduced the fuel excise indexation, and the Howard government ended it. They are standing firmly behind Howard.

To argue as many do that Abbott's strategy on indexation was "gutless" is way wide of the mark. To increase the price of petrol, and do it without parliamentary approval, might be crazy brave, but it is brave. The cowardly approach is never to take action that hurts.

On the other hand, when Abbott says indexation will cost motorists just 40 cents a week, they don't believe him. Why? Because he so exaggerated the impact of the carbon tax. Now they suspect he is doing the reverse.

The emissions trading scheme is yet another example of politics over pragmatism. Clive Palmer has proposed that Australia moves on an ETS when our major trading partners do so. It is becoming increasingly clear that those partners, almost all of them, will eventually do just that.

The Abbott Government - however long it lasts - almost certainly will resist until the end. And when they are once again in opposition, the Coalition will again play hard ball, ensuring the introduction of an ETS in some form or another is as politically painful as possible for the government of the day, no matter what the rest of the world does.

There will be no "mature" debate on that; just a screaming match.

And the Greens too, were wedged this week not knowing what to do about a golden opportunity to make petrol dearer and therefore less attractive to commuters.

It seems the so-called party of the environment missed a chance to leverage something, anything, from the Government in return for their support for fuel indexation.

The Nobel prize-winning economist, Milton Friedman, once said that tax reform is impossible, until it is inevitable. The same can be said of adequate responses to climate change.

The reforms will come, but thanks to the self interest of politicians on both sides, it will be via a very long and rocky road.

Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of the ABC program Insiders. View his full profile here.

Selfish politics means a rocky road to reform - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)