Mark Kenny: Morrison’s gaffer-tape government loses its linchpin in Christopher Pyne

All of a sudden, the beleaguered Morrison government resembles a game of KerPlunk! — the gaffer-tape government has been bleeding Cabinet names since the 2016 election but for all of those, Christopher Pyne looks to be that critical straw.

• Christopher Pyne quits: In his own words to The Advertiser
• The Life and Times of Christopher Pyne

All of a sudden, the beleaguered Morrison government resembles a game of KerPlunk!

You know the one. Contestants take straws from a structure until some unlucky sod pulls the one holding the whole show up and, well, KerPlunk! — it loses its marbles.

One way or another, Scott Morrison’s gaffer-tape government has been bleeding cabinet names since the 2016 election when you think about it — Barnaby Joyce, Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop, Kelly O’Dwyer, Michael Keenan, Nigel Scullion, Steven Ciobo.

Several backbenchers too — most of them women. There’s even been a defection.

But for all of those, and for all their cumulative effect, Christopher Pyne looks to be that critical straw.

Defence Minister Christopher Pyne calls it a day. What’s next for Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government? Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

The stalwart whose election-eve statement about this government’s chances carries the most sting, and will cause the greatest loss of faith.

Make no mistake, the doughty moderate’s decision to call it quits ahead of a federal election his party is odds-on to lose, is a hammer-blow to the Prime Minister and a major loss of face for his increasingly strained government.

Undoubtedly, it means those odds have deteriorated further.

Controversial, combative, and strangely good humoured, Pyne has long been an electoral asset for his party, and as Manager of Government Business in the House of Representatives, its first bulwark against parliamentary attack.

At every election, pundits tip that he’s in trouble in his beloved eastern suburbs stronghold of Sturt, and at every election proves them wrong.

Perhaps this time was going to be different?

IN HIS OWN WORDS — CHRISTOPHER PYNE RESIGNS

Typically, Pyne’s announcement was both widely tipped and yet still came as a political bombshell.

That apparent contradiction reflects his persona, his dominant presence within the Liberal Party in South Australia, and his contribution to the federal parliament for a colossal quarter of a century.

Another contradiction is that his unrivalled parliamentary experience belies his actual youth.

Amazingly, Pyne bows out of federal politics as a veteran, and yet at just 51, he is easily young enough to embark on a whole new career.

Internally, the federal Liberal Party will be the poorer for the loss of a pragmatic warrior possessed of keen political instincts, and an indefatigable parliamentary style.

And South Australia will have lost a voice of authority and influence in Canberra.

Respected on both sides of the aisle, he is as well liked by Labor MPs as Liberals.

.@RichardMarlesMP on rumours @cpyne is planning to resign: If it is true, yours has been a mighty career and I for one will miss you.

MORE: https://t.co/1SsJflQJwZ #pyneandmarles pic.twitter.com/FYrSZdHWNd

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 1, 2019

After the betrayal of Turnbull by the right wing, and the betrayal of Bishop by her own moderates — a decision Pyne angsted over but sanctioned to hold out the right’s Peter Dutton, his own departure completes the moderate exodus.

There can be no glossing over the potent symbolism of his withdrawal right now as the Morrison government’s dual scare campaigns over asylum seekers and “retirement tax” take on a “Dutton-esque” tone.

Pyne’s not just another straw, but the final moderate linchpin. KerPlunk!