Piers Akerman: Malcolm Turnbull’s backing of Teal independents proves he doesn’t grasp politics

Malcolm Turnbull has proved again why he was a hapless Liberal leader and prime minister with his backing of the teal independents against the moderates of his former party.

Malcontented millionaire Malcolm Turnbull has donned the teal uniform of the so-called independents claiming traditional political party supporters can escape the “thrall of the dominant faction” by “voting for an independent who has a real chance of success”.

The elitist former Liberal PM, ranked first or second as the worst in the party’s history, made his pitch to the Washington chapter of the Harvard Club (he did not attend Harvard) not in his old electorate, Wentworth, where former diplomat and current MP Dave Sharma is facing off against millionaire fashion heiress Allegra Spender. She is one of a number of independents backed by the heir to another fortune, Simon Holmes a Court, who runs the sect-like Climate 200 political fundraiser.

His candidates’ campaigns have been distinguished by the well-choreographed performances of (largely) well-groomed women dressed in uniforms who resemble characters from A Handmaid’s Tale.

The bitter Turnbull’s grasp of politics hasn’t improved since he was dumped by his colleagues in 2018.

On Friday morning he told the ABC that “in the federal party room, the tide has really gone out for the smaller ‘l’ Liberals and the moderates”.

“So the consequence is that the people who were more comfortable with that side of the Liberal Party are, if you like, voting with their feet, and supporting teal independents,” he went on to say.

Elitist former PM Malcolm Turnbull ranks first or second as the worst leader in the Liberal party’s history, says Piers Akerman.

This is nonsense with a capital “N”. The teal independents are targeting seats held by small-l Liberals who actually share most of their views and some of whom have crossed the floor to vote against the majority of their party MPs. They claim to be independent but actually caucus with each other and read from the same policy sheet prepared by their sponsor Holmes a Court.

The planks to their shared platform are climate change, integrity, an inclusive economy and strong health and education policies. Spender actually promises “a better climate for Wentworth” as if the wealthy eastern Sydney electorate is on another planet and not part of the global climate she claims to be able to influence.

All her teal colleagues totally ignore the glaring reality that China’s annual increase in carbon emissions would totally negate anything Australia could do if global warming was in fact proven to be caused by human activity.

Her most important referee is Rowena Danziger, the former headmistress at the expensive all-girls Ascham School Spender attended, along with Kerry Packer’s daughter Gretel and (disclosure alert) my own daughters. Danziger, a 20-plus year veteran director of a number of Packer companies including the troubled Crown Resorts, was a member of Crown’s risk management committee.

Former ASCHAM headmistress Rowena Danziger is Allegra Spender’s most important referee. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

Former judge Patricia Bergin, who conducted the inquiry into the casino concern found last year Crown was not fit to run the new casino at Barangaroo. She said Danziger gave her evidence before most of Crown’s problems had been exposed but noted “the ineffectual nature and functioning of the Crown risk and governance structures is the responsibility of all directors who served at the time of these failures”.

Perhaps Danziger is advising her former head girl on integrity issues.

Holmes a Court, in turn, could also take some lessons in integrity given his father, the billionaire Robert Holmes a Court, was accused in federal parliament of stealing nearly $1bn from the people of Western Australia.

Hansard of September 18, 1990, records Wilson Tuckey saying of Holmes a Court Sr: “His smooth extraction of almost $1bn from the SGIC (State Government Insurance Commission) could be equated to the efforts of those celebrated cat burglars of the movies.”

The Climate 200 founder was apparently unaware of his father’s history and last month emailed me a query: “What are you referring to? What do you know about my father that i (sic) don’t?”

Plenty, apparently, and I hastened to enlighten him. So far though no response to my request that he hand back his inheritance to the taxpayers. Maybe his “independent” candidates, who make much of their claims to integrity, could return their funding given the claims around its primary source? That would make the real difference they claim they could make in politics – but it won’t happen.

Holmes a Court’s team is bereft of policies to deal with the big issues of defence and the economy. No wonder Turnbull finds it so admirable. It mirrors his hapless leadership.