Free Trade Consensus Remains Intact in Australia

As many of you may know, Australia had a federal election on August 21 that yielded an at-time-of-blogging inconclusive result. As a consequence, the Liberal-National coalition (currently in opposition) and the Australian Labor Party are both wooing the Green and Independent members in the hope of securing their support. A Canberra-based friend sent me a link to an article in today's (or, strictly speaking given the time difference, yesterday's) Australian about the trade-related aspects of the current negotiations to form a minority government.

I'll admit, the story had me worried. I've bragged before about Australia's bipartisan political consensus on free trade, and it looked as though that was under threat. According to the article, Labor -- the party responsible for much of the unilateral trade liberalization undertaken in the 1980s -- was considering "re-erecting tariff walls":

Yes, modern Labor has degenerated to the point where the Treasurer allows the prospect of protectionist horse-trading to be part of the equation for forming Australia's next government. And so Australia's political deadlock threatens to encourage the rise of a new industry protectionism driven by the anti-capitalist Greens in cahoots with left-wing trade unions and rural populism...

A few hours later, a new, happier story was filed on the Australian's website:

...Ms Gillard used her press club speech to offer continuity and certainty, but made clear she would not seek [Independent] Mr Katter's vote by pandering to his passionate rejection of free trade, which he believes has ravaged sectors such as the sugar industry in his north Queensland seat of Kennedy.

"You're talking to the leader of the political party that literally went to hell and back to modernise the Australian economy, including reducing tariff barriers," Ms Gillard said.

"That is our heritage, that is our belief, that is in us.

"We would not have the modern resilient Australian economy we have now if Labor had not built it.

I'll ignore that last preposterous statement about a political party building an economy, and instead focus on the main thrust of Ms. Gillard's comments, which should come as a relief to free-traders everywhere, especially in Australia.