Malcolm Turnbull is a fearful PM, distrusted and detested

Malcolm Turnbull has zero political intelligence and no self-awareness as to how he is regarded by Australians. Picture: AAP

If there was a sliver of respectability left with the Prime Minister and his government, it was well and truly smashed and trashed on Monday. The announcement that the first week of parliamentary sitting would be cancelled demonstrated why there is a pall of crisis clouding the government and why Malcolm Turnbull has been on the wrong end of 23 Newspolls in a row. There are senior Ministers who had argued some weeks ago to cancel that week of Parliament when there was only one vote (Barnaby Joyce) down. Unsurprisingly, they were furious that the PM once again failed to be decisive. He dithered for so long that by the time he made the decision public, John Alexander had fallen on his sword over his dual citizenship.

A decision that would have been viewed at best with scepticism, now looked like one born of fear.

These days our PM is a bundle of fears. He fears the sitting of the Australian Parliament because it may well deliver a Royal Commission into the banks and he continues to ride shotgun for his mates in the big four. He fears Bill Shorten who seems to have his measure.

He fears his own party room where he knows the tide of rebellion and discontent is rising fast. He fears that John Alexander could be defeated in the Bennelong by-election and bring down the house of cards. He fears Julie Bishop, whose ratings leave his flailing in their wake. It is a fair bet that these days our PM fears getting out of bed each morning.

Alan Jones and I were having a pleasant dinner at the legendary Sydney restaurant Beppi’s on Monday night. Neither of us particularly like being treated like complete mugs either. We both received a text from Christopher Pyne which piqued our interest, along with our annoyance. It read as follows: “By the way, this isn’t a surprise to Labor. We briefed them about it two weeks ago.”

The head waiter whispered in my ear that as a matter of sheer coincidence Bill Shorten was in the house. Given my lack of mobility I asked him to tell Bill we were there and asked him to say hello. Far from being “briefed”, the only reference to postponing Parliament at the meeting Shorten had with Turnbull a couple of weeks earlier was when Shorten says he made it crystal clear that the Opposition wanted the Parliament to sit and deal with all legislation that came before it, whether it was controversial or not. He had even put that in writing to the PM.

Apparently, Pyne thought Jones and I were such mugs that we would accept that Labor had been briefed on the government’s decision and sat mute for a full two weeks without using what can only be described as political gold for the Opposition, when a government is running scared of the Australian Parliament and the Opposition chooses to ignore it.

Pyne, I know the decision is indefensible. I know how desperate you and your mates are. I know the stuff about waiting for the same sex marriage bill is total waffle. I know you are usually too smart to carry on with crap like this. I don’t know what has happened to you but I hope you get over it.

Someone in the Liberal Party room has to put an end to this misery. Someone with integrity and guts must rise to his or her feet and call the PM for what he is: an isolated, aloof figure, distrusted by his own, and detested by too many.

A man who has zero political intelligence and absolutely no self-awareness as to how Australians regard him.

It is easy to work out how the Opposition Leader regards him. When Shorten met with the PM he brought with him Penny Wong and three note takers. Once bitten ...

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