Turnbull 12 months on: Is it just the Abbott government with a different shingle?

IT IS exactly 12 months since Malcolm Turnbull knifed Tony Abbott for the country’s top job. So is it just the same government with a different face?

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

IT IS as if 12 months ago the land was in darkness and wild beasts roamed.

That’s the message you might get from the tone of comments by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison in the lead-up to today’s anniversary of the dumping of Tony Abbott.

“A year ago, we were looking at expenditure as a share of GDP going back over 26 per cent,” recalled Mr Morrison on Monday.

Then the sun returned.

“Now we’ve got that back under control over the last 12 months,” he continued, before also noting 3.3 per cent economic growth and “around 200,000 extra jobs”.

The two most senior government figures have been preparing for the inevitable commentary today that the removal of Tony Abbott had changed little or nothing, that Malcolm Turnbull became Prime Minister but Turnbull policies have yet to arrive.

Mr Abbott — who last night went on Sky News to say he didn’t want to comment on events of a year ago but did have a few points to make — was directly mentioned rarely in the Turnbull/Morrison pre-emotive effort.

He was the unnamed figure of the dark days.

Are we still living with the Abbott government, just with a different salesman? Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

However, Mr Turnbull’s biggest political difficulty remains that he has yet to starkly distinguish his administration from that of his predecessor. He has become a ready target for Labor claims he is merely the continuation of the Abbott government with a different shingle.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten puts it savagely: Mr Turnbull had gone “from messiah to mediocrity”.

With bad timing for the Prime Minister, the decision for a national ballot on same-sex marriage underlined the Abbott-continuation claim.

Mr Turnbull told Question Time: “The policy for a plebiscite was adopted while the member for Warringah was prime minister.

“It was adopted by the cabinet, of which I was a member, endorsed by the party room, of which I was a member, taken to the election — as Prime Minister — endorsed by the Australian people, and now we are delivering on our promise.”

It was a perfectly accurate and reasonable explanation, but the question from Labor’s Tim Watts had been: “How is his policy on marriage equality any different to the policies of the government when the member for Warringah was the prime minister?”

And the answer was there was no difference, even though Mr Turnbull personally wants marriage equality legislated without a $170 million plebiscite.

The idea of an ongoing Abbott regime has been encouraged by elements within the Liberal Party, including Mr Abbott himself — who at times appears to be a member of the Opposition somehow enjoying the government benches — and former minister Kevin Andrews and Eric Abetz.

Dark days are over … Malcolm Turnbull during Question Time yesterday. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Interestingly, some of these elements are upset because Mr Turnbull has refused to maintain some Abbott era considerations, such as the rewriting of the Racial Discrimination Act.

But there are other Liberals who are relieved the Coalition regained government under Mr Turnbull and that the days of 12 months ago have passed.

There are no more of the shocks, jolts and unpleasant surprises that occurred almost daily under the previous prime minister, no more hairy-chested belligerence when a considered response was needed, no more extraneous culture wars.

The past 12 months have not been a path of bliss for the Turnbull Government.

The extraordinary tax mess of February — in which everything from a rise in the goods and services tax to state income taxes were run up the Prime Minister’s flagpole — the two month double dissolution election campaign and the clunky May Budget, which is yet to be settled by legislation, were not happy features of his administration.

Mr Shorten is slowly gaining in electoral support in comparison to the Prime Minister.

But talk of Mr Turnbull not being allowed to reach a second anniversary is overblown. Certainly at this stage.

The alternative — an experiment with a sixth leadership in nine years and a sixth prime minister in the same period — is too much to contemplate for most.