Laurie Oakes: Prime Minister hurt by lots of idiocy and no restraint from Liberal Party
EVERY time Malcolm Turnbull looks like he might be building some momentum, idiotic party infighting brings him down, writes Laurie Oakes.
Laurie Oakes
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- Pyne: ‘We’re not a Stalinist party’
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WHEN Malcolm Turnbull dropped in on a class of 9-10-year-olds at a Sydney primary school yesterday, one of the kids asked: “What’s it like being Prime Minister?”
“It’s wonderful,” Turnbull replied. “It’s a fantastic job.”
And he added: “Everything we do is about you.”
It was a remarkable demonstration of the power of positive thinking. Or perhaps the PM was simply delusional at the end of a political week from hell.
But “wonderful” was hardly the word to describe the way Turnbull’s leadership was trashed by Tony Abbott, friends of Abbott and Coalition MPs who don’t want Abbott back but lack the self-discipline to keep their traps shut.
And by week’s end punters had good reason to believe that, far from being motivated by the interests of children or, for that matter, Australians in general, the Liberals are fixated on themselves and their grubby political games.
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I wrote last week that, with some legislative successes under his belt, Turnbull was looking more prime ministerial and might yet lift the government’s poll ratings unless further internal divisions got in the way.
But even before that column was published, Turnbull ally Christopher Pyne had delivered a speech to a private dinner that would destroy any pretence of Liberal unity when a secretly made recording leaked a couple of days later.
Abbott, having booked himself for two major speeches along with the usual interviews with friendly radio shock jocks, clearly planned to use the week to further his undermining of Turnbull anyway.
The PM could not be allowed clear air to sell the Gonski 2.0 school funding reforms passed by the Senate on the eve of parliament’s winter break.
But Pyne’s stupidity created an atmosphere in the Liberal Party that turbocharged Abbott’s “I am the conservative saviour” message. It ensured damage to Turnbull was maximised.
Pyne’s suggestion that gay marriage might be fast-tracked was less important in this context than his gloating about how moderates had gained ascendancy over conservatives in the Turnbull Government.
All hell broke loose. Angry Right-wingers lined up to give newspapers provocative quotes.
There were calls for Pyne’s head, demands for more conservatives and fewer moderates in Cabinet, and threats of leadership spills. Abbott dropped his “no sniping” pretence and is in open revolt.
The impression was of a government deeply divided and a leader not so much under siege as being battered and bullied by all and sundry.
The truth is that Abbott still has only a handful of supporters, but a small number can make a big noise. Some of the Liberals who contributed to the noise were motivated not by the leadership issue, but by considerations such as personal ambition or an obsession with same-sex marriage.
And others simply lacked the self-discipline not to react to Pyne’s juvenile but provocative grandstanding.
Whatever the motivation, though, you have to wonder at the idiocy of it all. The row is hugely damaging and its effects will still be felt come the next election. That might not worry Abbott but it should concern everyone else in the Coalition.
There are Liberals wondering whether some conservative colleagues actually want to take the party into opposition, believing that would enable the Right to strengthen its position.
The bottom line is that Turnbull’s task to rebuild Coalition support gets harder and harder. Increasingly, it is a question of whether the Liberal Party wants to let him.
There are, of course, lessons to be learned. The first is that someone needs to start exercising authority in the party and soon.
That means new Liberal director Andrew Hirst and new federal president Nick Greiner.
In the current political climate, rival factional dinners — the moderates’ so-called “Black Hand” function on the first night of the Liberal federal council meeting, where Pyne delivered his speech, and the Right wing’s equivalent gathering 24 hours later — should not have been allowed to go ahead.
It was indulgent and dangerous.
The second lesson is that the party needs to find a way to deal with difficult issues like gay marriage and a renewable energy target.
“At the moment we just kick the crap out of each other,” says a prominent backbencher. “People won’t compromise. It can’t go on.”
He’s wrong. It can. At least until the election. And if it does, Bill Shorten will be the one celebrating.
The bottom line is that Turnbull has been further weakened, but no one — apart from Abbott — seems at all interested in replacing him.
In fact, Peter Dutton, the conservative most often mentioned in dispatches, seems to have Turnbull’s back in a way that the likes of Pyne do not.
Laurie Oakes is the Nine Network political editor.
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