Ready for fight to the death

MALCOLM Turnbull has dug his heels in - true to form with the way he has conducted himself throughout his life.

Whether we are talking about his time as a lawyer taking on the British government in the Spycatcher case or his efforts in the seat of Wentworth when fighting for Liberal preselection, Turnbull isn't afraid of a fight.

He showed that again last night.

Turnbull's political opponents were quick to cast him as mad after his news conference last night, like the black knight in the Monty Python movie, fighting on despite losing arms and legs, claiming they were only flesh wounds.

One senior Liberal described him as like "Hitler in the Berlin bunker, moving troops around that no longer exist".

That may be true - numbers were deserting Turnbull at a rapid rate last night - but the Liberal leader is banking on his skills as a barrister and boardroom negotiator in the days ahead to talk around colleagues worried about his style from earlier partyroom meetings.

It is far too late for that. He needed to listen to the mood of the back bench some time ago on emissions trading.

His emotional plea on climate change is unlikely to work therefore, but Turnbull doesn't want to go down differently from the way he has lived his life - prepared to fight to the bitter end.

The times when Turnbull has fought to the bitter end previously have not always gone his way - but sometimes they have.

This time, however, he is trying his belligerence in the political world. The last time he did that on the national level was over the republic when at the end of it he held a press conference and attacked the then prime minister, John Howard, for breaking the nation's heart. It was a petulant performance, one that took him years to recover from before he could again seek involvement in the Liberal Party.

Turnbull's approach to winning endorsement for the Liberal Party in the seat of Wentworth was another example of his persistence.

Peter King was only a first-term sitting member, but he had the support of the moderates in the Liberal Party in NSW known as The Group. How ironic that to win that battle Turnbull turned to conservative elements from within the Liberal Party to beat King.

Such figures included senator Bill Heffernan and now NSW Liberal president Nick Campbell.

He also had to resist conservatives who were not even members of the Liberal Party - monarchists joined the Liberal Party in a bid to resist Australia's most prominent republican fighting his way into parliament.

Turnbull and King engaged in a stack to the tune of thousands of members, almost doubling the NSW Liberal Party membership in the process. It was typical Turnbull - an anything but typical approach to winning a political fight. But it worked and emboldened him when he entered parliament.

It didn't take him long to work his way on to the front bench and into Howard's cabinet. And in opposition it took him only one year to push Brendan Nelson aside and take over the leadership.

ABC's 7:30 Report presenter Kerry O'Brien jokingly asked him what took him so long - leader after all of four years.

Now he must be wondering what he got himself in for, despite the bravado on display in public.

By holding the news conference last night and refusing to resign as leader, given the dissent in his ranks, Turnbull has defied political convention.

He is daring his opponents to take him down and wear all the damage that doing so would reap on the party. It is a bold if desperate move.

Depending on whether you are a Turnbull admirer or detractor determines whether you see it as a principled stand designed to do the right thing, or a stubborn wrecker who has put himself and his ego ahead of the cohesion and values of the Liberal Party base and perhaps the majority of the partyroom as well.

It is a polarising position the Liberal Party is now in, but it should hardly be a surprise. Turnbull has been a polarising figure his whole life.

Why would anyone think that would change now?