Piers Akerman: Smashing Bill Shorten won’t save Malcolm Turnbull

MALCOLM Turnbull and Cory Bernardi stole the headlines but the core issues troubling the Liberal Party remain unchanged, Piers Akerman writes.

Piers Akerman.

MALCOLM Turnbull and Cory Bernardi stole the headlines but the core issues troubling the Liberal Party remain unchanged.

What will be the defining policies for the next election and when will Turnbull enunciate them?

Bernardi’s move to leave should have surprised no one, but gauging by the reaction to his decision to break away, it seems his colleagues were shocked.

Why? Bernardi has never handled big party discipline well. He was brought to book by former Liberal leader Tony Abbott and had to give up his shadow parliamentary secretary position to the opposition leader because of his outspokenness.

And Abbott managed to keep the party together.

Turnbull won the plaudits from the Canberra press gallery commentariat for his very sharp attack on Labor leader Bill Shorten but the analysis was weak.

Turnbull was in fertile territory when he ridiculed Shorten for his industrial relations record as exposed by the Heydon royal commission into trade union corruption.

“He comes in here and poses as a tribune of the people,” Mr Turnbull said.

“Harbourside mansions? He’s yearning for one. He’s yearning to get into Kirribilli House. You know why? Because someone else pays for it. This man is a parasite. He has no ­respect for the taxpayer. He has no respect for the taxpayer, any more than he has respect for the members of the Australian Workers’ Union he ­betrayed again and again.”

PM Malcolm Turnbull takes a few personal shots at opposition leader Bill Shorten during Question Time. Picture: Kym Smith

The royal commission found the AWU, which Shorten used to run, had received a payment from cleaning company CleanEvent at the same time it negotiated an enterprise agreement that reduced pay rates. The commission did not make any finding against Shorten though as the CleanEvent matters were finalised after he had left the union, but it did refer his successor Cesar Melhem to the police. No charges have been laid against Mr Melhem.

The more personal and most biting claims against Shorten were based on his friendships with Melbourne billionaires, the late Dick Pratt, Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox, when he was leading the AWU and seeking to enter parliament. Turnbull said Shorten had been “sucking up” to those billionaires by supporting a cut in the company tax rate, only later to transform himself into a “tribune of the people” who denounced the policy he once endorsed.

“There was never a union leader in Melbourne that tucked his knees under more billionaires’ tables than the leader of the opposition,” Turnbull said. “He will say whatever suits his purpose from day to day — no consistency, no integrity,” the Prime Minister told parliament.

“This sycophant, this simpering sycophant: blowing hard in the House of Representatives, sucking hard in the living rooms of Melbourne.

“He’s such a sycophant, a social-climbing sycophant … he likes harbourside mansions, he’s yearning for one, he’s tearing to get into Kirribilli House because somebody else pays for it.”

While the attack on his union leadership has real legs, the accusation that Shorten’s a social-climbing sycophant coming from a millionaire who lives in his own harbourside mansion and has no need of the taxpayer-funded accommodation comes across as a rich guy’s sneer.

It’s as if Turnbull were saying “how dare you hang out with billionaires, I’m the real deal” — and it has the capacity to boomerang back on the Point Piper resident.

The ultimate insult the really posh millionaire tossers come up with is that someone is a social climber.

In truth, as the polls reflect, the Turnbull vanity project is reaching its denouement. Having white-anted the former member for Wentworth, having leaked and destroyed an opposition leader, and subsequently a sitting prime minister, Mr Harbourside Mansion (full credit to Peta Credlin for the description) was finally provoked into his most authentic display of real rage by Shorten’s intrusion into the rarefied company of Pratt, Lew and Fox.

Fiery words have been exchanged between Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Outside the world of his personal offence, he has a Liberal Party that appears to be on an unstoppable downward trajectory. Nothing Turnbull has yet done since he usurped ­Abbott would indicate that he has the capacity to formulate a winning electoral strategy or, indeed, has the capacity to lead the Liberals to victory over even such a profoundly flawed Labor leader as Shorten.

Turnbull focused on the “who” factor in his attack on Shorten last week but the real questions that need addressing are “what” and “how”.

As usual, leadership pre­occupies the media and political classes and most commentators display their bigotry when they engage in this discussion.

Writing off an Abbott return is silly in the extreme.

History has repeatedly shown that rejected leaders can be ­restored and that in some ­notable cases they have performed exceptionally on their resurrection. Winston Churchill and Robert Menzies come easily to mind.

But the prime question facing Australian voters must be not “who” but “what” policies are necessary to restore and ensure the fortunes of the nation are ­reversed and “how” the problems can be dealt with most effectively.

Turnbull has acted as midwife for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party and has spawned Bernardi’s breakaway group.

Abbott is probably a 50-50 chance to replace Turnbull ­because he didn’t permit the party to split on his watch, he has shown himself to be an indefatigable campaigner. He may not always be likeable but he was a straight shooter.

In office, he made tough policy decisions and he didn’t automatically default to the soft left on issues.

Put aside the theatre and Turnbull is still on the ropes.