Sharri Markson: Not-so-boring truth about Nats leader
While Turnbull snipes over coal, Michael McCormack is putting to rest that “boring” tag, writes Sharri Markson.
Opinion
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When news of a feasibility study into a new coal-fired power plant in Queensland broke this week, Malcolm Turnbull was quick to deride it.
“There’s no economic basis on which to build a coal-fired power station in Australia any longer,” he said, helpfully running commentary on government policy.
He made the comments during his first return to Canberra since he lost the top job — and he didn’t fail to take a swipe at his replacement Scott Morrison’s announcement.
It is, therefore, quite stunning to discover that it was actually Turnbull himself as prime minister who first signed off on funding for a coal-feasibility study.
The proposal for a $4.8 million “clean coal” power station feasibility study first went to Cabinet in October 2017. It then gathered dust for more than six months before it finally got the tick of approval in 2018 at ERC, Cabinet sources confirmed.
At that time, neither the site nor company had been identified; this was simply funding set aside for a feasibility study for new coal-fired power station.
“It was going to be announced but was held up by the whole NEG debate,” a Cabinet source said.
“He (Turnbull) wanted to defer it until after that was sorted.”
Of course, it was during the NEG debate that Turnbull lost the leadership spill.
Newly departed resources minister Matt Canavan would not comment on Cabinet discussions when I asked him about this but he confirmed it had been signed off on under the Turnbull government.
“The announcement this week has been the fruition of a long-term plan by the government to fund feasibility studies into new coal-fired power stations,” he said.
Borrowing a term Turnbull is fond of, it’s the height of chutzpah to attack an announcement that you yourself first approved!
Hypocrisy aside, Morrison is now facing a slew of the same problems Turnbull faced as prime minister including a divided party, in which one arm is embracing coal for cheaper energy and the other, renewables.
Moderate Liberals are pushing for a net-zero carbon emissions policy by 2050. The faction is, for the moment, being kept at bay by Josh Frydenberg in the interest of unity, but who knows how long this will last?
Morrison’s dilemma when the coal-feasibility study is complete will be whether or not to go ahead with it — obviously depending on the outcome of the study.
The division in the Coalition will truly erupt at that point, irrespective of the decision Morrison makes.
Turnbull and Morrison share another similar obstacle that shows political history is truly repeating itself — namely, the uncontrollable problem of Barnaby Joyce.
It was a full two years ago that this newspaper revealed a series of scandals in Joyce’s personal life, culminating in a sexual harassment allegation.
Joyce selfishly chose to inflict ongoing damage on the government rather than accept he was in the wrong and resign.
Two years later, little has changed.
The Nationals are, once again, dragging the government into chaos.
Liberal MPs bemoan that Joyce and Canavan are acting provocatively and are not focused on the best interests of the government.
It’s hard to argue with this analysis.
Joyce remains intent on damaging the Prime Minister and McCormack for no real purpose.
There is simply no policy issue on which he bases his campaign of destabilisation.
Instead this destructive behaviour from the renegade Nationals is based on concern about McCormack’s leadership skills, perceived inability to stand up to Morrison and to deliver for regional Australia.
The concern is that McCormack lacks cut-through to voters because he is “boring”, thus threatening the future of the party.
While writing this column, I rang McCormack to ever-so-politely ask whether he intended to change his “boring” style after the threat to his leadership. It turns out McCormack doesn’t think he’s boring in the least.
“I don’t think I’ve given a speech in the last couple of years where I haven’t had the crowds roaring with laughter,” he said.
“Ring Paul Nicolau or James Pearson from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and they will tell you I’m certainly not boring and as an after-dinner speaker I’m the funniest they’ve had.
“Journalists who just sit behind their computers or television studios who don’t know me from a bar of soap pile on and it’s just not true.
“I’m quite a gregarious person who likes self-deprecating humour. If you can’t laugh at yourself there’s something wrong and I’m more than happy to do that.
“I think anybody who goes out in his electorate and dresses up as Elvis to help tourism for one of the towns or dresses up as ABBA, I don’t think you can accuse them of being boring. I even sang Suspicious Minds in front of 11,000 people.”
Part of McCormack’s problem, he thinks, is that his leadership of the Nats followed Joyce’s.
“Had I followed Warren Truss — and I love Warren Truss, and still to this day I follow his advice, but had I followed him they would view me differently to what they do.
“Warren was hardly charismatic but he did his job.
“Warren got on with the job, no one was across his brief better.”
At this point in the conversation, McCormack changed tack and argued that, either way, boring or not, entertainment was not a prerequisite for his job as Deputy Prime Minister.
“Politics is not Married At First Sight, it’s not Survivor, you’re running the nation,” he said.
“I don’t think any journalist who has ever thought to pick the phone up and find out who the real Michael McCormack is, I don’t think they’ve got the right to point the finger back and say you’re boring.”
After this conversation, I’d have to agree!
But it’s going to take more than a comedy routine to keep Barnaby Joyce at bay.