Federal election 2016: British vote to leave EU good news for Malcolm Turnbull

OPINION: It might have sparked David Cameron’s resignation, but Britain’s vote to leave the EU is good news for Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition ahead of the federal election.

THERE is no event that is devoid of political consequences and that includes the impact on the Australian national elections from the decision by the British people to vote to leave the European Union.

In raw, hard political terms, this is good news for Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition, regardless of the potentially calamitous economic consequences of the leave victory.

Voters in Australia want stability and security, primarily economic and personal, and they want a cool-headed outlook from those in government.

REFERENDUM: Britain votes to go it alone

Australia, which has had more than a quarter of a century of continuous growth and has survived the Asian financial crisis, the US-led tech wreck and the 2008 global recession, is better placed than anywhere else to charter the rougher waters we are bound to see in Britain and Europe.

This is thanks to successive governments – the stewardship of Peter Costello in the late 1990s and early 2000s as well as the courage of Wayne Swan in 2008 when he and Kevin Rudd stopped this country from falling into what everyone thought would be a certain recession.

Now we have what is going to be a big economic shock play out over the weekend and into next week.

The run on the British currency will be diabolical and European markets will bleed capital at a rate that could be unprecedented.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull struck the expected note of calling for calm and expressed what was an also anticipated reaction by saying it was now, more than ever, a time to stay with a Coalition Government running the economy.

Treasurer Scott Morrison didn’t appear quite as nimble in getting his message of reassurance across but it’s expected Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will be deployed in coming days to do that job.

At the end of this election, economic management was going to be pivotal and before this gloom and sense of disruption in Europe fell upon proceedings, Bill Shorten and Labor didn’t look like they measured up.

The voters of Britain may have sealed the deal for Coalition and put the final roadblock in the way of a possible Labor victory.

Originally published as Federal election 2016: British vote to leave EU good news for Malcolm Turnbull