KEY POINTS:
There's movement at the station. Even in December.
In times past, little of consequence happened in Australia between the first week of December and the weekend of Australia Day on January 26 in the New Year. At least one federal MP from Western Australia used to maintain that
he never came east until after the Australia Day holiday. Those times are long gone.
Admittedly, a new Government will always generate a bow wave as it seeks to implement its agenda. But this Christmas, the agenda in Australia involves a little more than the Rudd Labor Government in Canberra.
Perhaps the biggest announcement has come from the NSW Government of Premier Morris Iemma. One of its senior servants described the Government as being "in caretaker mode" between March, when it was comfortably re-elected, and the federal election last month. This led to the critics raising cries that it was a do-nothing administration. It has now moved decisively on the state's power industry.
Its decision divides neatly into three parts, with an additional piece being left on the table. First, the retailing functions of Energy Australia, Country Energy and Integral Energy will be privatised. Second, the "poles and wires" will stay in public hands.
Third, leases will apply to the state's generators - Macquarie, Delta and Eraring - with private companies being invited to operate. All of this follows the recommendations of Professor Tony Owen and is estimated by the Government to save the taxpayers some A$15 billion ($16.8 billion) over the next decade or so.
A decade is significant in NSW energy politics, for it was 10 years ago that former premier Bob Carr and former treasurer Michael Egan lost a bid to privatise the state's electricity assets, after a sustained campaign by trade unions.
The leasing arrangements are designed to avoid this industrial problem in future. Generous restructuring packages are also being offered to employees in the sector.
The state Government is pledging to spend much of the proceeds, estimated at A$15 billion or more, on infrastructure, including extensions to the M4 East in Sydney and a series of new metro rail links. Rural and regional areas would also benefit from infrastructure projects, including water and sewerage.
Unlike the stillborn Carr-Egan effort, this reform is likely to proceed, with much of the negotiating having already occurred behind the scenes within Labor's governing circles. The missing piece is the state's new baseload power station.
Iemma left open the possibility of private sector investment in a new generator. Coal-fired energy is still a probability but this must be seen against the changing policy mix on greenhouse emissions.
Already, Professor Ross Carnaut, senior adviser on climate change to federal and state governments, has made it clear that the future of Australian coal lies in carbon sequestration.
It is greenhouse emissions that have taken Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Bali for the UN conference on climate change. But before heading off to meet Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and other international figures, the new PM had a visitor.
Appropriately, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark paid the Rudds a visit at their Brisbane family home. This was one of those occasions when the pictures said it all. A quiet cup of tea on the verandah of the "Maison Rudd" spoke of a comfortable informality in discussions between the two prime ministers.
Relations with New Zealand are in sound order, and while John Howard and Clark may have had philosophical differences, they were never permitted to cloud what has become an effective and close working partnership.
Regional security looms large on the bilateral agenda. There is no doubt that Australia and New Zealand have to do more in the South Pacific, given the emerging challenges and competitive pressures between China and Taiwan in certain of the island states.
While the Prime Minister is talking climate change, his deputy, Julia Gillard, has slipped easily into the Acting Prime Minister's role. Gillard had a flawless campaign and has impressed people who have come into contact with her. Her grasp of policy details is impressive. As Acting PM, she sent the Senate a clear message.
The Government is aiming to abolish the electorally despised WorkChoices with an early bill in February. This is of particular interest to business, sections of which backed the Coalition heavily in the election campaign. While there is no doubt that the Business Council of Australia and most other organisations will respect the Labor Government's mandate, there is much interest in the final form of the changes.
And there are still pockets of resistance to change. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) is still urging members to sign up new employees to Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). The ACCI argues that employers should not be second-guessing what Parliament will do next February. This is a little disingenuous, but still reflects legal realities.
The new federal Government has had to advise its own agencies that AWAs may only be used when there is no satisfactory alternative. This interim directive was circulated after union complaints that the Australian Building and Construction Commission was still advertising for a new executive, with an AWA on offer. The commission is loathed by the building industry unions and its flagging of an AWA is seen as deliberately provocative in some quarters in Canberra. But again, until the new workplace regime takes effect, AWAs are still industrial currency.
The real challenge here is for new Opposition leader Brendan Nelson. Does he continue to embrace WorkChoices or move the conservative parties to a more liberal position? The decision may already have been made for him, with wily Senator Barnaby Joyce, National Party Queensland, again indicating that he is likely to support the Government's move to abolish.
The real danger for the Coalition is that if it defends WorkChoices, then it risks losing in 2010 on precisely the same grounds that it lost Government in 2007. It is already clear that Labor is intent on targeting marginal conservative seats next time around with a view to increasing its likely 10-seat majority.
Nelson has no wish to abandon Howard. But this element of the Howard legacy may prove such a weight that it can sink the conservative parties once again. The fact that Nelson's website still asks the campaign question of how many of the new Labor front bench are union bosses shows there is not yet much new thinking in Opposition ranks.
Elsewhere, signs are unmistakable that business is getting on with the change of federal Government.
Policy seminars are sprouting in the Sydney CBD on issues such as "What climate change means for business". Ratifying Kyoto may be a symbolic gesture but no one doubts that the policy agenda in Canberra has changed to a more rigorous effort on renewable energy and emissions trading.
Treasurer Wayne Swan is speaking at a major business function in Sydney today. Swan and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner have already set about taking the scalpel to federal expenditure. The new Treasurer is reaching out to business early, continuing the process he set in train during his Opposition years. The difference now is that business is more eager to listen to Swan as the new Labor Treasurer sets about framing his first Budget for next May.
The year is concluding with a surge of policy energy in Canberra and Sydney. The new year will soon be upon us and no one need be in any doubt that the pace is likely to gather speed.
* Stephen Loosley, a former federal president of the Labor Party and a senator, chairs business advocacy group Committee for Sydney.
