Parallel decisions are bad public policy

THE federal government's two major decisions yesterday - to block the Queensland government's plans to build the Traveston Crossing Dam and not to support the Productivity Commission's recommendation to abolish parallel import restrictions on books - were examples of political positioning rather than good public policy.

How ironic it is that Environment Minister Peter Garrett - a passionate advocate of action on global warming - has vetoed a dam that would have avoided less environmentally friendly desalination, so as to protect the habitat of the Mary River turtle and cod.

What about protecting the habitat of the millions of Brisbane residents who wouldn't mind secure drinking water?

Blocking changes to the parallel import restrictions on books may, in the short term, aid local publishers. But book retailers who employ many Australians will struggle to compete with cheaper books available on the internet, which in the long term will harm local publishers anyway.

For Australians who don't buy over the internet, the government has just made books more expensive than they need be.

The government knows its decisions on these twin issues are bad public policy. But they have been made for political reasons.

Opponents of the dam would have been vocal and, with the emissions trading scheme already on the nose in rural Queensland, upsetting environmentalists would have left Labor under attack from all sides.The asylum-seekers standoff has upset sections of the union movement and the Labor Left. Yet the backbench has stayed disciplined.

It needed a win and the cabinet decided giving in on book importation laws was an easy way to avoid rebellion on other more important fronts.