Inside the world of the Del-Cons and Mal-Contents

HAVING engineered an early election amid awe from the Mal-Contents, the polls are turning against Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, says Catherine McGregor.

IT was my esteemed colleague Miranda Devine who coined the term Del-Con (Delusional Conservatives) to describe those committed conservatives who she claimed were deluding themselves by pining for the return of Tony Abbott as prime minister.

It is a catchy phrase and has deservedly achieved wider currency than the new five dollar note.

As a declared Friend of Tony Abbott (FOTA) I have been tarnished with the same brush. No hard feelings Miranda. Be assured I will never socially ostracise you, as some ghastly Del-Cons have done. Indeed, you made your point with more nuance than others who have since invoked your label.

First, I agree with you that Abbott will never return as prime minister. Accordingly, any sane conservative should prefer Turnbull’s re-election to that of the ALP or a protest vote for one of the grievance parties of the extreme right. On neither point would Abbott disagree with you. He has made that very point through these pages.

But I am unable to share your confidence that Turnbull is a shrewd political genius whose every move has been intricately crafted to mesmerise his opponents. Rather, the reincarnated Turnbull has demonstrated the same fatal flaws that led to his ignominious demise in 2009.

Remember Godwin Grech? Remember the abortive appeasement of Kevin Rudd on emissions trading?

Sure John Howard was forced to do something similar but the party trusted him. It never really has embraced Turnbull.

It turned to him in desperation amid dire opinion polls in return for his assurances he would provide a clear and compelling economic case for the return of the government. Implicit in his criticism of Abbott was his hint he would also be more popular.

He has failed to deliver on these promises. Granted, he is more popular than Abbott, according to the polls. But his honeymoon was brief and the trajectory of his personal numbers is alarming.

He has trashed an unassailable poll lead inside six months and contrived to hold a gun to the head of a recalcitrant Senate. Some of his colleagues (not just Del-Cons) are worried that the gun is actually pointed at them. If some of the Senate crossbenchers buckle this week to pass the double dissolution trigger bills many in the government will heave a sigh of relief.

Nonetheless I still expect Turnbull to secure a second term despite the trend in the polls. As a decision looms voters tend to drift back to the incumbent. Turnbull enjoys a clear, though shrinking lead, over Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister. And I suspect voters’ memories of the last Labor government are still fresh.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull / Picture: Melvyn Knipe

However, one need not be a Del-Con to conclude the Turnbull project has been an abject failure. If the government is returned with a significantly reduced majority, as seems likely at this stage, then Turnbull’s position will be precarious. His alliances within his party room are purely transactional. He has few real friends. His disdain for most of his colleagues is reminiscent of Kevin Rudd and derives from the same self-regarding personality type.

What is surprising is how devoted his media acolytes have been. They too deserve their own short hand nomenclature. For every Del-Con there is an enthusiastic Mal-Content or Bull-Artist who exonerates Turnbull’s every mistake.

With every howler and policy backflip they grow more content with Mal. To a smitten Mal-Content Turnbull never actually makes mistakes. Rather, all of his hare brained thought bubbles are classified as strokes of genius.

Take for instance his bold initiative to share income tax powers with the state governments, thus overturning more than 70 years of federal practice forged in the crucible of a national emergency.

More was written by Paul Kelly in The Australian than was written by Turnbull’s office or department about that pearl. Kelly proclaimed it as Turnbull’s “big idea’’ on Wednesday. Sadly it never became a Big Policy. It was dead before the state premiers got their planes home on Friday evening. But ‘twas a victory to the Mal-Contents.

Even that fiasco was interpreted by the Mal-Contents as conforming to a carefully designed strategy. Apparently, the failure of a Very Big Idea actually shows up the bankruptcy of the opponent. Just like sending your opponent in to bat in a Test and when they score 600 saying: “That was well within our expectations.’’

As Turnbull flounders the Mal-Contents are becoming increasingly strident. Easier to denounce his critics than to concede he has failed to live up to their own unrealistic expectations. To the committed Mal-Content all of Turnbull’s woes are the fault of Tony Abbott. Such thinking is delusional. Turnbull has struggled to unite his party room for the same reason he ruptured it in 2009. He has poor political instincts, lacks the common touch and even commonsense. The rift with Abbott is a minor distraction compared with the break down in communication and collaboration with his Treasurer Scott Morrison.

Morrison has been hung out to dry by Turnbull for various attempts to raise revenues or cut spending. In so doing the Coalition has ceded control of the economic debate to Labor. Shorten has advocated risky tax increases but as a perceived weak leader he needs to take risks. Turnbull’s caution has diminished his standing. Now, having engineered an early election amid awe from the Mal-Contents the polls are turning against Turnbull. Moreover, his and the fate of his government are in the hands of a Treasurer who he has humiliated.

Both deep expenditure cuts and tax increases would be political folly in an election Budget. Yet one or the other is necessary. Only a genius could have led them to this point.

A famous victory.