Sharri Markson: By George, he’s a big worry for PM

EXCLUSIVE: Nationals MP George Christensen has threatened to resign from the Turnbull Government and sit on the crossbench, following in the footsteps of his close friend, Liberal Party defector Cory Bernardi.

EARLIER this week, in a state of immense frustration, the Nationals chief whip George Christensen sat down to a write a resignation letter to Malcolm Turnbull.

Just six days earlier, one of Christensen’s closest mates, Cory Bernardi, had dramatically defected from the Liberal Party, sparking media attention around the country.

Christensen, unhappy with the government’s direction, had long been contemplating his own future and reassessing how he fit within a government he sees as too progressive and out of touch.

John Tiedemann

At his mahogany wood desk in Parliament, guided by his faith in God, he wrote a 2½-page letter to the Prime Minister.

It demanded action over an issue blowing up in his Queensland electorate.

A foreign multinational company, Wilmar, had announced that local canegrowers and farmers would no longer be able to sell and market the sugar crushed in its mills.

As a result, they would be paid less and were terrified of job losses.

Tony Abbott had taken action over the dispute, setting up a task force which recommended a mandatory code of conduct for the sugar industry. But it was never implemented.

Christensen sat down to write a letter demanding Turnbull announce a mandatory code of conduct for the sugar industry be announced by March 1, with penalties, or he could no longer guarantee his support for the government.

The plan he has discussed with close friends is to move to the crossbench but seek permission from Barnaby Joyce to attend Nationals partyroom meetings.

“This issue is the most important one to confront me in my six years in politics and that’s why I’m committed to doing whatever it takes to get an outcome,” he told me.

“If it takes ruffling a few feathers here, crossing the floor or going rogue to get an outcome, then you just have to do it.”

The government’s lack of action on this topic could be the last straw for Christensen.

He’s incensed over the current push by Liberal MPs for same-sex marriage. He’s outraged he did not get a Cabinet position.

He hasn’t made up his mind about a move that would impact him only a little but would be disastrous for Malcolm.

A local issue in a Queensland electorate was not an issue that was likely to have been at the forefront of Turnbull’s mind this week, when Nick Xenophon was holding the country to ransom by reneging on agreement to pass $5.6 billion in welfare cuts.

But he was then forced to deal with it in Cabinet this week.

Once a backbench MP would have no choice but to argue his case and lobby the government over an issue. Now, with a one-seat majority, every MP has leverage over Turnbull.

It’s a precarious position where Turnbull may be forced to delicately negotiate both with his own politicians and destructive crossbenchers like Xenophon.

Turnbull has a mandate to govern.

Whether he won the election by one seat or a thousand seats, it’s ultimately irrelevant. He won, and he has a mandate to implement the policies he took to the election and others that he chooses to introduce as PM.

The crossbenchers, and some within his own party, refuse to recognise that.

For Xenophon, he is clearly relishing his new position as Senate powerbroker and is abusing it for maximum publicity.

He feels he owes nothing to the government.

A media tart, he did dozens of radio and television interviews this week.

Borrowing from Trump, he held up a copy of The Australian newspaper and scrawled “Fake” across it — a stunt that attracted even more headlines.

The South Australian Xenophon Team, who were essentially elected on protest, suddenly think they know how to run a budget better than Turnbull, a Rhodes scholar and successful businessman.

This team from a mendicant state are not acting in the national interest.

Turnbull and Scott Morrison are trying to prevent Australia from losing its AAA credit rating.

They are trying to curb expenditure and stop the welfare splurge that began at the end of the Howard years and exploded under Labor.

They’re trying to encourage investment and employment in Australia by lowering company tax rates at a time when we have among the highest in the world.

He is in an even more powerful position than any Cabinet minister.

Turnbull is trying to fix the budget and govern — a job he was elected to do by the people of Australia.

Yet he is being blocked by a wannabe celeb from a failed state of South Australia, who cares more about ­seeing his face on A Current Affair than his role in risking Australia’s credit rating.

Christensen has every right to fight for the cane growers in his electorate. He feels he owes nothing to the government, who didn’t put him in Cabinet despite his years of experience greatly superseding other more junior Nationals who got a look in.

The irony is, the leverage that he is prepared to exercise now means he is in an even more powerful position than any Cabinet minister.

He hasn’t finished writing the letter to Turnbull. He hasn’t made up his mind about a move that would impact him only a little but would be disastrous for Malcolm.

He will wait to see whether the issue is resolved for local cane growers and their families.

And Turnbull, whose professional history shows he does not react well to being bullied into a position, will have little patience for being held to ransom.