AWU donations affair: flawed rivals Turnbull and Shorten are good for one another

PM Malcolm Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten — the most unpopular leadership options in decades — are the best thing going for each other.

Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten — the most unpopular leadership options in decades — have demonstrated again that they are the best thing going for each other: the Prime Minister’s lack of political savvy gives the Opposition Leader a constant reprieve, and Shorten’s unpopularity gives Turnbull a lifeline as preferred prime minister.

In the past couple of days, the Turnbull government has been in chaos and faces potentially greater chaos today as the High Court decides the fate of Barnaby Joyce, who represents the Coalition’s survival as a government.

It is difficult to see a much-needed recovery in Newspoll for the Coalition after a confusing parliamentary sitting, which started well for the government with a concentration on cutting electricity prices but ended so badly.

For the Coalition, execution and implementation again failed to meet expectation, as the government’s determined plan to put electricity prices at the centre of the political debate unravelled.

Labor has also shown it can outflank the Coalition in short-term strategy and the 24-hour media cycle.

The government’s chance to push a positive story on cutting electricity prices was swept aside in the swirling aftermath of police raids on AWU offices relating to Shorten’s role in donating $100,000 in union members’ funds to the sympathetic GetUp!

In a gift to Labor, the Coalition trapped itself by being linked with stupid, publicity-seeking tip-offs that allowed television cameras to be waiting when the Australian Federal Police launched its raid in Melbourne.

Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Labor, recognising the potential damage to Shorten’s already low public esteem over insider union deals, launched a torrent of claims about the inquiry and raids.

Shorten’s final parliamentary claim yesterday was: “Labor’s criticism of the government’s bungled raids is not about the integrity of the AFP. It’s about the lack of integrity in this rotten government. These raids were the desperate action of a grubby government led by, quite frankly, a grubby Prime Minister.” Labor’s aim was to erode the credibility of the inquiry.

The government dug in behind Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, who survived, and today’s High Court decision will swamp the issue.

Longer term, Shorten faces damage from another inquiry into his union deals, but in the short term he can rely on government chaos to deflect the focus.

Chaos is bad for governments, and it’s worse if the chaos is self-­inflicted. Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition have inflicted short-term pain on themselves.