By ABC's Barrie Cassidy Friday 20 February 2015

Photo: Whatever is around the corner in these gladiatorial political times, an outbreak of consensus won't be a part of it. (AAP: Mick Tsikas)

It's easy to dismiss the dismal political posturing that goes on in Canberra as part of a global trend, but in fact Australia is a world leader, writes Barrie Cassidy.

Whatever is around the corner in these unpredictable and gladiatorial political times, an outbreak of consensus - on the economy, climate change or anything else - won't be a part of it.

In this country, the ruling party is reluctant to give up any of its powers and authority, no matter how limited those powers can be.

The Margaret Thatcher edict is firmly held: "There are still people in my party who believe in consensus. I regard them as quislings, as traitors ... I mean it."

Opposition parties likewise have remained drunk on political opportunism. Parties in opposition oppose. That's what oppositions do.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, writing in the Financial Review on Thursday, declared the Government could sell its fiscal reform message, but not when they are: (a) dishonest (b) inconsistent (c) flogging ill thought out policies and (d) not up to the task anyway.

Readers were still absorbing that antithesis to an olive branch when Bill Shorten bobbed up at a fruit shop running a scare campaign against applying the GST to fresh food.

It's easy to dismiss such dismal political posturing as part of a global trend, but in fact Australia is a world leader.

In Sweden, the major parties have recently signed a "stability pact" - agreeing that no matter who forms government, the budget will not be blocked by either one of them until at least 2022.

That was a response by the Social Democrat-Green government and the centre-right to efforts by the far-right to use and abuse their balance of power on everything from economic reform to immigration.

In the United Kingdom, the three political leaders, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, have this month signed a pledge to tackle climate change.

The prospect of such a joint declaration in Australia is almost zero.

It says in part: "Climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world today. It is not just a threat to the environment, but also to our national and global security, to poverty eradication and economic prosperity."

"It is in our national interest to act and ensure others act with us."

The leaders agreed to "seek a fair, strong, legally binding, global climate deal which limits temperature rises to below 2C," and to "accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy-efficient low-carbon economy and to end the use of unabated coal for power generation."

Former US vice-president Al Gore said of the agreement that it "represents inspiring leadership and true statesmanship by all three men. The political courage that it represents on all sides is exactly what our world most needs in order to solve the climate crisis."

In Australia, the best chance for consensus rests with terrorism and security. The Labor opposition is terrified of the issues.

But the Prime Minister has complicated even those issues by talking about removing the benefit of the doubt on matters like residency, citizenship and welfare payments. That shift in the onus of proof might be too much, even for this opposition.

Tony Abbott is cranking up the issue on Monday by pushing for new security measures when the parliament resumes. He is playing to his strength.

Yet he told Andrew Bolt on Sunday that his concentration in the past on national security issues meant he neglected his backbench.

"This obviously was a terrible mistake," he said. "It was a terrible failing. It's not something that I'm ever going to repeat."

Yet on the first day of the first sitting week after the spill motion, terrorism will be the issue even though some on his own backbench have said publicly that their constituents want him to address more bread and butter issues.

If the plan is to drive a wedge between his Government and the Opposition - or at least make consensus more uncomfortable for Labor - then it just might work.

It's a long way from the problem solving ways of the British and the Swedes and probably closer to the cynical definition once offered up by the writer P.J. O'Rourke:

"The two most frightening words in Washington," he once wrote, "are bipartisan consensus. Bipartisan consensus is when my doctor and my lawyer agree with my wife that I need help."

They all need help, P.J., It's just that they refuse to help one another.

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Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of the ABC program Insiders. He writes a weekly column for The Drum.

We're world leaders in political posturing - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)