Piers Akerman: PM Malcolm Turnbull needs a phoenix, not a bunch of galahs

REVENUE Minister Kelly O’Dwyer incredibly and unthinkingly endorsed an amendment from Labor’s Dr Andrew Leigh that called on the government to explain why it had “failed to close tax loopholes and ­increase transparency in Australia”.

Piers Akerman.

A POSITIVE and confident Tony Abbott rose from his backbench seat to thunderous applause from the opposition on Wednesday to ask an innocuous Dorothy Dixer of Trade Minister Steve Ciobo.

Even Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who had successfully undermined and plotted to depose him 13 months ago, could not prevent a smile from crossing his lips.

At that early stage of the afternoon the government had yet to again shoot itself in the foot.

Three hours later Revenue Minister Kelly O’Dwyer would incredibly and unthinkingly endorse an amendment from Labor’s Dr Andrew Leigh that called on the government to explain why it had “failed to close tax loopholes and ­increase transparency in Australia”.

Whatever gains the Turnbull government had made in earlier welcoming Singapore’s much needed and significant investment in shared military training facilities and in celebrating the visit of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and his address to the Parliament, the first by a Singaporean leader, were wiped out in an instant.

Revenue Minister Kelly O'Dwyer in parliament. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

The government leader of the house and Minister for Defence Industry, Christopher Pyne, rushed to downplay the embarrassing blunder, describing it as an “inadvertent error”.

“I would make the point that there are several owners of this error, and I am not going to criticise the people who work for us, the people who are sitting in the chair.

“There was a series of events that led to this outcome, and it’s a pity.”

The opposition didn’t let the moment pass without comment even as it gave the hapless O’Dwyer a hospital pass.

For Tony Burke, the manager of opposition business, it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

He enumerated the problems the government had ­endured in just its first 10 sitting days.

“In those 10 days, the government have lost control of the floor of the House of Representatives through some of them going home, and then today they lost control of the floor of the House of Representatives when they all stayed.

“We have also had a Treasurer who has introduced legislation containing a $107 million black hole, which was discovered by the shadow minister for finance, and we have had a Senate that ran out of legislation to debate.

“When they voted about how bad they were on tax avoidance and international multinational tax avoidance, who were the two ministers at the table? The Minister for Revenue and Financial Services (O’Dwyer), who is in charge of tax, and the Minister for Justice (Michael Keenan), who is in charge of international crime. The two people who would know. There is a reason why the member for Warringah stood up today and said, ‘It’s good to be popular’ and there is a reason why the stocks of this government have been tanking as quickly as they have.”

As tempting as it was to leave the government in a ­humiliating stew, he said someone had to “save this mob from themselves” and he eased the way for the house to drop the embarrassing amendment.

The point he made though should stand: “If the first 10 days are any guide at all, then this is a government that is not counting up its days — this is a government in countdown.”

O’Dwyer’s pathetic performance in question time the following day was woeful. Before the brutish feminists start bellowing “misogyny”, they might view the tapes.

Her bumbling response to a predictable question was inexcusable and certainly not ministerial.

Turnbull’s parlous majority does not afford him the luxury to exclude Tony Abbott, a proven and experienced player.

Abbott’s critics within the ranks of those who cheered for the Turnbull coup are not performing at his level.

They find it impossible to recognise that the only thing that saved the Liberal government at the July election was the record created by the man he politically assassinated — and the National Party’s absolute rejection and repudiation of the wettest of Turnbull’s personal philosophies, homosexual marriage and global warming.

Yet Abbott is recognised ­internationally as the leader who was not afraid to stand up to Putin over the shooting down of the Malaysian passenger aircraft over the Ukraine, he is a much sought- after speaker internationally, delivering addresses in Prague, London, Birmingham and New York in recent weeks.

Increasingly, he is seen as the voice of clarity in a confused world. The Turnbull cheer squad in the government and in the media would do well to read his words and take heed instead of carrying on the campaign to denigrate him.

While he has contritely acknowledged his shortcomings, his contrition has not been adequately acknowledged. Turnbull, who is older than Abbott, has had a few wins but not the record of successes in office that bears comparison with that of the man he overthrew.

Turnbull’s achievements as a former opposition leader are questionable at best. His performance was so dismal it gave Prime Minister Kevin Rudd an undeserved leg-up even as Rudd’s performance was being challenged by members of his own party.

The campaign he ran as a sitting prime minister earlier this year was so abysmal it gave Opposition Leader Bill Shorten a thoroughly unwarranted lease on political life.

Einstein is famously said to have mused upon insanity, believing that it is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.

As the latest bungle demonstrated, Turnbull’s government is not gifted with such brilliant ministers that it can keep ignoring an obvious and proven talent on its own backbench.

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