A HUNG parliament would not be healthy for the economy, says a senior finance lecturer at the University at New England (UNE).
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For the second time in three elections, the nation stares down the barrel of a potential hung parliament.
Dr John Anderson said stability in policy and the economy would be hard to achieve if a minority government needed to be formed with crossbenchers.
“People would be less influenced to invest, with the extra layer of uncertainty,” Dr Anderson told The Leader.
He said the final make-up of the Senate could also add to the uncertainty in terms of policy, with a number of crossbenchers looking likely to pick up upper house seats.
“Policy becomes uncertain on a range of matters,” he said.
“Otherwise sensible policies have to be made more palatable.”
The indecision from this weekend’s election could also end up impacting Australia’s coveted triple-A credit rating, according to Dr Anderson.
“Government debt is the benchmark on which all debt is priced,” he said.
Dr Anderson said there was absolutely a chance the rating could be lost, which would impact homes and businesses across the country.
“If you drop the triple-A rating, the cost of all borrowing goes up,” Dr Anderson said.
“And if you lose the triple-A, it’s a real bugger to get it back. We’re talking years and years.”
Dr Anderson said he thought it would be unlikely to see Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull call another election in the near future.
He said elections were very “disruptive and costly” to the economy and that it would be unlikely another election would be held any time soon, despite the prospect of a hung parliament.
He said there was a sense of voters “thumbing their nose” to the major parties and speculated more of the same could be offered up with another election.
Yesterday it was reported credit agency Moodys said in a note to investors Australia’s credit rating was not under immediate threat from the uncertain election result.
Senior vice-president Marie Dilon said the implications would be limited and the nation’s credit rating would only be affected if it “changed broad policy priorities and the effectiveness of their implementation”.
