Malcolm Turnbull has failed on two fronts this week, political donations and the ETS legislation. The idea that the Opposition will oppose the Government’s reforms on political donations because they don’t go far enough is pure poppycock. More serious is the admission that the Opposition will oppose the Government’s ETS legislation but will not put forward any amendments because it does not have sufficient time. This is the sort of nonsense that politicians come up with to hide more serious problems.
Turnbull’s leadership is close to being dead in the water. Turnbull has not:
- exerted authority over his side of politics, the primitive rantings of Wilson Tuckey are just the outward manifestation of a deeper problem
- offered the Australian public any strong sense of his moral character and political purpose, instead Tony Abbott has staked out this territory with his book which only served to put Turnbull’s deficiencies in this area in greater relief. Having read Annabel Crabbe’s recent Quarterly Essay on Turnbull, I’m still none the wiser about his ambitions beyond a life-long desire to succeed. Crabbe’s essay emphasises that Turnbull has been successful through taking risks (and bullying) but at the moment his leadership is characterised more by policy timidity and laziness. Turnbull’s big gamble was utegate and he lost that through a mixture of tactical impatience and lack of diligence in testing his evidence before he sallied forth and risked all.
- and, consequently, he has not been able to put forward a credible political alternative. His efforts lack a credible structure – and that makes them ineffective and makes him appear like flim flam to the electorate.
As the wasted weeks go by, Turnbull is looking more like a Peacock or a Beazley, then a Howard or a Rudd. He is plausible enough but not hungry enough to do the really hard work. Turnbull’s big problem is that once the swingers, who vote on a mix of intuition and emotion, decide you are not the real deal, then you’re always going to fall short.
