David Spears: The issues Turnbull must resolve
The Government has four major policy problems it must resolve before the summer break at the end of the year. If Malcolm Turnbull cannot get out in front of these issues, he has no chance in next year’s election.
Opinion
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Bill Shorten lost the 2016 election, but that didn’t stop him embarking on a victory lap.
For two weeks he toured the country, fronting the cameras every day to frame the election result as a whopping rejection of Malcolm Turnbull and everything he planned to implement.
It was a somewhat cheeky, yet hugely successful strategy.
Turnbull may have been returned as Prime Minister but the impression set in that he was a dud campaigner with a policy plan the Australian people were hardly thrilled about.
This week the Prime Minister let his opponent do it again.
Bill Shorten has been out and about every day since the by-election results, framing in voters’ minds what they were about — namely, a rejection of the government’s big business tax cuts.
The increasingly awkward and damaging questions about Labor MP Emma Husar and the party’s handling of the serious complaints against her haven’t sent Shorten into hiding.
He’s still out there, several times on some days, driving home his company tax message.
By contrast the Prime Minister went missing for most of the week.
He held a press conference on Sunday to argue there was really nothing unusual about the by-election results, despite everyone being well aware a near 10 per cent swing against the LNP in Queensland was far from normal. Then Turnbull decided it was best to avoid the media until he finally spoke at the launch of Greg Sheridan’s book yesterday.
It was left to Mathias Cormann and Scott Morrison to valiantly defend the big business tax cuts, but even they couldn’t say with any certainty what will happen when the Senate surely rejects them.
What’s needed is a decision. And quickly. The government is bleeding badly on company tax cuts and no one seems to know what position they will take to the election expected in May next year.
When it becomes painfully obvious that a policy has to be abandoned, it’s usually best to rip the Band-Aid off quickly and start explaining why the new course of action is so much better.
In the absence of the leader’s authority on this, worried, anxious and bitter colleagues filled the void.
Some were genuinely nervous marginal seat holders who were expressing an understandable preference to avoid being sent to political oblivion by arguing in favour of a tax cut for the big banks.
Others were pushing broader agendas.
Tony Abbott was quick out of the blocks to offer his three-point solution to the government’s Queensland woes. He says the answer is to withdraw from the Paris climate treaty, cut immigration and boost funding for Catholic schools.
It seems Turnbull doesn’t entirely disagree. While there’s no chance of the government withdrawing from Paris, it is trying to end the war with Catholic schools, and work is underway to come up with a population plan to settle more migrants in regional areas rather than congested cities.
Another fallen leader, Barnaby Joyce, also weighed in. He reckons current climate change policy is “bulls. t”, he argues the government must “change its ways” and he’s openly talking about his desire to return to the leadership.
Of course, Joyce is promoting his new book and well knows controversy sells. He’ll be in the media a lot over the coming week, resurrecting his image and canvassing his future prospects.
Most Nationals are reluctant to push back at Joyce. Darren Chester, who was dumped from Cabinet by Joyce and now serves as Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans Affairs, has no such qualms. Ahead of Joyce’s book promotion tour, Chester was blunt.
“There is no pathway back to the leadership for Barnaby and the sooner he understands that the better it will be for the party and our government,” he told this column.
“He has every right to continue to seek the endorsement of the people of New England, but no right to expect his colleagues to back him as leader after the events of the past 12 months.
“He let himself down, he let our party down.”
Rallying support for Michael McCormack, Chester argues the Nationals leader has grown in the role very quickly and senior party figures “expect him to be given the clear air Barnaby was given throughout his leadership’’.
Clear air would certainly help McCormack and Malcolm Turnbull, but so would resolving major policy problems. In the next four months the government has to sort out its position on company tax, settle the fight with Catholic schools, address concerns over migration and — arguably the most difficult of all — land an agreement on the National Energy Guarantee.
It can’t afford to go into the summer break with these problems unresolved. That’s not to say solutions will be easy, far from it.
But the Prime Minister needs to at least be on the front foot, arguing his case, every day.
David Speers is political editor at Sky News.