Liberal-Residents Rally Alliance Government
Tensions between Residents Rally and the Follett Labor government had been building for some time. The two parties had clashed over planning issues, dealings with the federal government and concerns over potential interference with the judiciary, as well as the government's support for Casino Canberra - which Residents Rally had vociferously campaigned against as part of their election platform. Finally, in December 1989, a dispute over legislation dealing with pornographic videos brought the issues to climax, and Residents Rally moved a motion of no-confidence in the Follett government. They subsequently formed a coalition government with the Liberal Party and the Independents Group - three ex-members of the No Self-Government Party. The deal saw Residents Rally leader Collaery become Deputy Chief Minister, and both Jensen and Kinloch become junior ministers in the new government.
Their new role in government gave the party significant power, and they used this, most notably to prevent what they saw as inappropriate development in a number of areas around Canberra. However, this also meant making allowances to the Liberal government's agenda, and as a result, the party decided not to oppose the government's closure of several schools and the Royal Canberra Hospital, breaking some of the promises they had made before the 1989 election. These decisions once led Labor MP Paul Whalan to compare them to the Liberals' federal coalition partner, the National Party of Australia.
Despite this, major differences began to emerge between the two parties, and in April 1991, Kinloch walked out of the coalition, though he remained a member of the party and continued to support Collaery's leadership. It was around this time that Kinloch announced that he would retire at the 1992 election, instead of running for re-election as previously announced. Only weeks later, on 29 May, the tensions between Residents Rally and the remainder of the coalition came to a head, and Liberal Chief Minister Trevor Kaine expelled Residents Rally from the government. They subsequently switched their support back to Labor, and Follett was once again installed as Chief Minister.
Read more about this topic: Residents Rally
Famous quotes containing the words rally, alliance and/or government:
“The bright old day now dawns again; the cry runs through the the land,
In England there shall be dear bread—in Ireland, sword and brand;
And poverty, and ignorance, shall swell the rich and grand,
So, rally round the rulers with the gentle iron hand,
Of the fine old English Tory days;
Hail to the coming time!”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Racism as a form of skin worship, and as a sickness and a pathological anxiety for America, is so great, until the poor whites—rather than fighting for jobs or education—fight to remain pink and fight to remain white. And therefore they cannot see an alliance with people that they feel to be inherently inferior.”
—Jesse Jackson (b. 1941)
“[F]rom Saratoga [N.Y.] till we got back to Northampton [Mass.], was then mostly desert. Now it is what 34. years of free and good government have made it. It shews how soon the labor of man would make a paradise of the whole earth, were it not for misgovernment, and a diversion of all his energies from their proper object, the happiness of man, to the selfish interests of kings, nobles and priests.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)