Yesterday began poorly for the Government. Two polls had come out the previous day, one showing its vote stable, the other falling. A boat with nearly 200 asylum seekers had sailed nearly to Christmas Island. The Opposition looked on a roll for the first time since, well, God, probably 2006.
By last night Labor MPs might have felt a little better. Barack Obama had helped with the announcement of his visit. No one was thinking about asylum seekers after that. The Government will be hoping the steady flow of would-be refugees stays as background radiation in the news cycle, rather than flaring as it did with the Oceanic Viking, so that the Opposition can’t get traction with the issue.
Then, not long before Question Time, Tony Abbott produced his climate action plan (“you can watch live on Sky News”, he tweeted beforehand — I hope you’re getting paid for advertising Sky, Mr Abbott). Had he and Greg Hunt managed to pull off the impossible — an effective, pain-free way of reducing emissions? Had they somehow achieved a breakthrough in environmental management and economics that would, in the words of one Coalition figure, merit a Nobel Prize? Alas, the only Nobel Prize going was that awarded by Christopher Monckton to himself. The direct action plan was a fine set of environmental initiatives with the minor flaw of not actually having anything to do with the task of curbing Australia’s emissions. Oh, and it was unfunded, and with large slabs of detail missing.
There was much shaking of heads and confused glances among the assembled journalists. Were there penalties? How would the penalties work? Where would the trees go? What was that Abbott just said about putting power lines underground? Why was Truss talking about putting trees on marginal land? What was going to stop polluters simply continuing to pump out emissions? Why was this a “market” solution?
Lots of questions, and not too many answers.
That was shortly followed by Abbott’s first Question Time, and he got off to a decent, if nervous, start but then decided to bring on a peculiar non-censure censure motion in an effort to compel a debate on climate-change policies. The Government promptly agreed, which appeared to wrong-foot Abbott entirely. Harry Jenkins then weighed in and failed to help at all, leaving Abbott standing at the Dispatch Box gasping a little like a fish out of water, until Jenkins got his act together and work out what was supposed to happen procedurally. Abbott then got his much-sought climate-change debate, which he began with a loud, sometimes hesitant and occasionally surreal speech that roamed all about the place. None of that ex-barrister forensic logic we used to get from Malcolm Turnbull.
It was clear from Abbott’s speech, and his answers to questions during the earlier press conference, that he is positioning the Coalition for a scare campaign on high immigration, dressed up as a concern that it’s not “sustainable”. From the party of record high immigration in Government, this would be a particularly cynical act, but that’s politics.
The Government was up for the debate. Peter Garrett, Tony Burke, Lindsay Tanner and Greg Combet all had a go after the PM had led off. Backbenchers followed. The Coalition counterpunched with Greg Hunt, Warren Truss, and, erm, the Bishops, and later the likes of Dennis Jensen.
Laugh all you like at Jensen — and yes, I know you probably don’t need me to to tell you to do that — but he was probably the only really honest participant in the debate. Everyone else claimed they wanted to do something about climate change, but backed one of two plans that were both rubbish at doing anything about it. This is the new version of Garnaut’s “diabolical” climate-change dilemma — working out which party has the worse climate change policy.
It wasn’t until after 8pm that they called a halt to this debate held under false pretences and voted on the motions from hours before in Question Time.
Oddly enough, Malcolm Turnbull, who had attacked the Coalition plan at that morning’s party room meeting, didn’t show up to vote with his colleagues in favour of Abbott’s motion. He didn’t have a pair either (you know, a Parliamentary pair… I’m not questioning his courage). He and Michael Keenan, along with Don Randall, were the only ones who didn’t vote. Keenan, like Turnbull, lost his job at the end of last year when Abbott sacked him as IR shadow and demoted him to the outpost of Justice.
By this stage Abbott had been mauled by Kerry O’Brien on the 7.30 Report in a thoroughly unconvincing performance. Barnaby Joyce, out of his depth and frustrated at his new restraints, inevitably didn’t help things with his effort on Lateline.
Today Tony Abbott has changed his mind and is off to meet Chris Monckton, who is attending a private function at the National Press Club. Perhaps Abbott will hear first-hand how Jackie Kennedy was responsible for 40 million deaths, or how Monckton has invented a cure for a range of major diseases, or singlehandedly won the Falklands War. There’ll be more heard about this misjudgement. Let’s hope we haven’t seen the best of Abbott yet, because yesterday was decidedly ordinary.
The question is, does this matter when it comes to winning over the voters Abbott is going after, who don’t follow politics nearly so closely as say the average reader of Crikey.
Rudd has the slick media and parliamentary management battle won many times over, but that’s not where Abbott is fighting back, so these kind of tactical blunders or lack or preparation in parliament are going to worry him or the Coalition too much.
This week Abbott and Joyce have simply added a few more blatant untruths and gross simplifications to their set of repeated phrases (‘talking points’ would be too sophisticated a term). It seems to be get some traction so far…
I wonder when Bern wrote this?
Last w’end when he had lots of time on his hands?
You and I must be reading different media and watching different Question Times Bernard or its a case of seeing what you want to see, not unusual for the Left and the Canberra press gallery.
The Daily Telegraph in Sydney said it all with its front page photograph of Abbott, gazing across the parliamentary despatch box, like a lion looking at its next meal, with the caption, ‘ The Heat Is On’, emblazoned across the page.
Abbott has set the agenda and you can sense the goverment trying to back away from the Climate change debate. As Abbott said, Rudd has NO PLAN B.
So when the ETS goes down, again, the ‘Direct Action Plan’ is the only game in town.
Abbott leads his ‘troops’ with a relish for the fight that is fascinating and such a contrast to his predecessors.
This is going to be a great battle to observe.
Today’s not been much better for the Coalition.
Barnaby Joyce on the National Press Club exhibited a frightening level of ignorance and stupidity.
The man is seriously out of his depth and needs to be put out of his (and our) misery.
The very bad day is a precursor of a very bad year. Going to see Monckton indicates that he is better suited for a job as a journalist at the Australian rather than continuing to pretend that he has what it takes for his current position.
He could star alongside Janet Albrechtsen and, like her, wonder what it would be like to have people take him seriously.