George Christensen a ‘boofhead blowhard’ but PM must face criticism

Enter from stage left, Malcolm Turnbull in the wake of George Christensen-Andrew Bolt story. Picture: Gary Ramage

Andrew Bolt is a force of nature. He hosts a one hour show on Skynews five nights a week, has a contract with Macquarie Radio which sees him on the airwaves on those five days as well. His columns are appearing in News Corp publications in five states. No one can produce that amount of material each week without a work ethic which keeps him going 24/7. He is a right-wing conservative person and wears that badge proudly. While he therefore spends a fair amount of his time bagging what he sees as lefty lovers promoting victimhood and political correctness, no one on the Right is immune from his attacks if he believes they are letting the side down. He is tough and fearless and while he and I often disagree on politics, I cannot deny that there are very few in the commentariat at large who carry as much gravitas.

Just as I was a constant critic of Prime Ministers Rudd and Gillard, he is prone to sticking it to Malcolm Turnbull — a point on which Bolt and I are in complete harmony. It was no surprise therefore that a couple of weeks ago a then unnamed MP from the Coalition side said he would resign if Turnbull was still the PM by the time Parliament sat this week, he would resign from his party and the government would lose its majority on the floor of the House of Representatives. Bolt quite properly refused to name the MP concerned but most people had a suspicion it would turn out to be George Christensen.

You should always be wary of anyone who seeks publicity time and time again by rubbishing their own side. Disunity within a political party is perfect fodder for the media scrum. This was the only reason most of us ever came to hear of Christensen, an otherwise pretty ordinary backbencher who would have failed to blow out the smallest political candle were it not for his attempts to eat his own. Our suspicions were justified when Bolt revealed that it was in fact Christensen who had called him with the threat of resignation.

This week the boofheaded blowhard even tried to muddy the waters by suggesting that Bolt got it wrong. When this happened, he was widely ridiculed. Bolt’s worst enemy knew he would never make up a story like this. Then our George simply claimed that he had changed his mind. Apparently, he had walked over to the edge of the cliff, saw how far down it was to the rocks below, and walked back again. This could also be seen as yet another gutless wonder who lacked the courage of his convictions. When it came time to put up or shut up, he folded his tent. The bravado was gone and I sincerely hope that the gallery ignores this bloke from now on.

Enter from stage left, Malcolm Turnbull. Seeing an opportunity where there wasn’t one, our Prime Minister got on the phone to heavies at News Corp, the proprietors of this newspaper, demanding that Bolt be sacked. When you are behind in 24 Newspolls in a row one would imagine you are not doing everything right. Surely you would expect robust criticism. I wonder why Turnbull refuses to go on Bolt’s program. If you don’t like what Bolt is writing or saying, then the obvious response is to show some guts and take him on face to face with the cameras rolling — that is unless you feel you might come off second best. The PM avoids Alan Jones and myself as well.

He still hasn’t learnt that Prime Ministers can run but they can’t hide.