The Turnbull government has dodged a bullet, but in the long term true conservatives might come to view today’s High Court ruling as a step in the wrong direction.
Much depends on the court’s reasons, which are not yet available, but it looks like the court has made it easier for governments to spend taxpayers’ money.
This can be seen from the sharp difference between the facts involved in this challenge and another unsuccessful challenge.
The late legal academic Bryan Pape failed to persuade the court to prevent the government of Kevin Rudd from mailing out $900 stimulus cheques during the global financial crisis.
Pape failed because the court concluded that Rudd plan, which had legislative support, was properly backed by heads of constitutional power.
The point is this: it is easy to see how a global financial meltdown could be unforeseen and required urgent attention. Yet Rudd went to parliament and sought approval.
It will be extremely interesting to see how the seven judges of the High Court concluded that a national opinion survey, without legislative backing, was valid despite the fact that it had none of the urgency associated with a threatened collapse of the national economy.
This decision, if viewed in purely political terms, will be welcomed by the government and its supporters. It heads off a nasty fight inside the Coalition and gives Turnbull a way of arguing that he is at least attempting to do justice to the pre-election promise of a plebiscite.
But this is one of those occasions when it is misleading to rely entirely on political judgments which, in this case, are short-term.
This decision weakens the ability of parliament to hold the executive branch of government accountable for spending decisions.
That matters because the money that governments spend is not their own — it all comes from taxpayers. True conservatives should find nothing to celebrate in a such a decision.
A proper assessment will need to await the court’s formal reasons, but this ruling already looks like a dangerous precedent.
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