Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull fails test and puts leadership in jeopardy

MALCOLM Turnbull has put his leadership in jeopardy by spectacularly failing the tests he set when tearing down Tony Abbott little more than nine months ago. Here’s why he could be gone.

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MALCOLM Turnbull has put his leadership in jeopardy by spectacularly failing the tests he set when tearing down Tony Abbott little more than nine months ago.

Back then, he delivered an electrifying speech to announce his long-anticipated challenge, boldly declaring Mr Abbott had been incapable of providing economic leadership, relied on slogans and was steering the Coalition to an election loss.

Mr Turnbull was installed to win an election and has, thus far, failed. If he loses government, his leadership is finished. Even if he ekes out a majority, he is on notice and will be dogged by questions about his future after poor opinion polls and government stumbles.

Liberal MPs knew the risks of knifing a prime minister — Labor had provided the guide with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard — yet they embraced Mr Turnbull because they believed he was a winner.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership is now in jeopardy. Pic Chris Pavlich

But the expectation of coasting to victory over a terminally flawed Bill Shorten-led Labor has disintegrated and Mr Turnbull is staring at the prospect of a hung parliament.

Already, he has been forced to call crossbenchers upon whom his political future might depend, his hand weakened by the desperation caused by unexpected failure.

The Liberals’ conservative rump is angry, primarily because the leadership switch’s chaos has not been worth it — so far.

Mr Turnbull’s enthusiasm for gay marriage and previous support of an emissions trading scheme to tackle climate change meant conservatives had to bite their tongues once their favourite, Mr Abbott, was deposed for his supposedly more electorally appealing rival.

Some were suspicious that a significant part of Mr Turnbull’s appeal was to the Coalition’s rivals, those who hated Mr Abbott and wanted him gone — but would never vote Liberal.

There is now some evidence for these conservative fears. Mr Turnbull’s optimistic campaign mantra was about the Coalition’s “plan for jobs and growth”, yet his economic leadership failed to convince sufficient Australians to vote for him to hand him victory on election night.

Some Liberals are trying to draw links with John Howard’s tight 1998 election victory. This is optimistic, given Mr Howard sought and won a mandate to introduce the GST — an extraordinary reform.

Mr Turnbull has attempted to drift back into office by branding his Budget a “plan for jobs and growth”.

He will need a significant dose of Mr Howard’s iron will, conviction and salesmanship if he is to secure government and, as he vowed, lead the Coalition to the next election.

IT’S an indictment of where politics has headed that people are questioning Bill Shorten’s leadership of the Opposition.

This is the guy who has just done what people thought couldn’t be done.

You can judge him for myriad things (you can start with the effective but duplicitous MediScare campaign) but you have to admire the man’s results in Saturday’s election.

Think about how it looked once the urbane Malcolm Turnbull cast the hairy-chested Tony Abbott into the wilderness. Mr Shorten — he who offed a couple of sitting Prime Ministers, whose charisma quota lagged so far behind his opposition — was zero chance of being PM.

But through dogged determination, daring policy announcements and rat cunning, he made it a live possibility.

Yesterday, in the turbulent wake of the double dissolution poll, reports emerged that leftie DJ and all-round good guy Anthony Albanese was a potential challenger.

“Albo” was the popular pick when he went toe to toe with Mr Shorten in a primary style contest for the leadership last year, but he lost on party votes. Now some are saying he wants back.

But The Advertiser could not find anyone who was actually saying that. On the left, the consensus seemed to be that it was a Machiavellian conspiracy. Follow these twists.

They say that the Right want to flush out Mr Albanese, by spreading the story that he will challenge Mr Shorten for the leadership they might force him to say he WILL NOT challenge for the leadership, therefore ensuring that he never actually does challenge.

On the right, one Labor insider declared that to be “horseshit”. Others used similar terms.

Thing is, neither side seem to think it’s a good idea to take down such a successful leader and in the process remind everyone of the bad old Rudd-Gillard-Rudd days.

It has just become a done thing to talk of leadership change every time someone sneezes.

One MP even suggested that they were innocently talking to a journalist about the newish leadership rules whereby the Labor leadership is automatically declared vacant after an election,

creating a window where challengers can arise publicly rather than sneaking up from behind. That explanation seemed to fuel the leadership story unintentionally, that MP theorised.

Once the election is decided, the spot will be declared vacant. Mr Albanese may put up his hand, because otherwise he may have to wait years for another opportunity.

But that is a wildly different proposition to the idea that there is a coup underway before Mr Shorten has even had time to properly lose the election.

Originally published as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull fails test and puts leadership in jeopardy