Too fast to stay on track for the prize

THE Liberal Party's talent bank is eroded yet again with the premature departure of Malcolm Turnbull, whose career in the national parliament will span a short two terms from 2004 to 2010.

The Turnbull prime ministership, like that of Peter Costello, was much vaunted but never realised. Like Costello, Turnbull leaves still having much to contribute to public life but without the necessary motivation to remain.

His departure testifies not just to Turnbull's political flaws but to his two main rivals - Kevin Rudd, whose campaign over the OzCar affair fatally weakened Turnbull's leadership, and Tony Abbott, who rolled Turnbull as leader last year and felt that his frontbench recall this year was unwise.

Turnbull would have stayed in politics and recontested his seat of Wentworth if appointed finance spokesman by Abbott a fortnight ago. No political party can sustain without penalty the departure or foreshadowed departure from the Liberal stage over the past 18 months of so many senior frontbenchers.

It is a long roll call: Alexander Downer, Peter Costello, Brendan Nelson, Nick Minchin and Turnbull. All were cabinet ministers in John Howard's final team.

An irresistible judgment on Rudd's 2007 election victory is the rolling destabilisation it triggered within the Coalition, with Abbott now trying to restore stability.

Turnbull will not like the historical judgment on his career, namely, that his brilliance outside politics did not translate in equal measure to the political arena.

But he will prize his policy legacy - the Murray-Darling water initiative with Howard and his championing of an emissions trading scheme in government and in opposition, the stance that led to his loss of the leadership in December.

His career pivoted, ultimately, on the principle of how best to combat climate change. Turnbull would have it no other way.

He believes the Liberal Party, sooner or later, will return to his ETS position and that he will be ultimately vindicated.

In life and in business Turnbull moved fast. But politics is difficult for the impatient man - in the end Turnbull's career was too fast-forward, winning the leadership too early and then losing it too early. The national parliament will be poorer for his exit.