Malcolm Turnbull is risking it all on a double dissolution gamble.
The Prime Minister’s threat to the Senate, delivered this morning, might prompt the crossbench to pass the ABCC and registered organisations bills. More likely, the nation will head to a double dissolution election to be held over what will in effect be 10 gruelling weeks of campaigning. This might deliver Turnbull authority in his own right as elected Prime Minister — or he might crash to a defeat that seemed impossible mere weeks ago.
This is not what voters expected, or wanted, from Turnbull. His coup to remove Tony Abbott was welcomed across Australia because it promised to usher in the kind of stable, mature government that Abbott himself had promised and completely failed to deliver.
Turnbull said he would treat the electorate with respect and conduct intelligent and informed debate about complex issues. He promised to explain the need for economic reform as well as the solutions, without resorting to Abbott-era sloganeering or fear campaigns.
He has delivered none of this. Although it’s hardly Turnbull’s fault that Abbott is conducting a destabilisation campaign, the drift and lack of direction that has marked the Turnbull government this year is a product of Turnbull’s own failings and those of his ministers and advisers. Now, in order to regain control of the political narrative, he is threatening to send the country to an early election.
Above all else, voters want politicians to govern, and they were prepared to give Turnbull the free air to do just that. Turnbull’s strategy might appeal to political commentators inside the Canberra bubble, but to the average Australian the constant electioneering — including shifting the budget to suit political needs — is deeply unappealing. Australia’s political system is starting to look permanently self-obsessed, and voters are turning off in droves.
“Is that a gun in your pants Malcolm, or are they just full of your own self-importance?”
You’re whistling in the dark Crikey. The Turnbull government may not win the election if it is held on 2 July but that will be determined by the campaign, not any feelings of disaffection about Turnbull’s lack of economic narrative.
There is still the budget on 3 May and the whisper is that it will contain massive infrastructure spending against 30 year bonds at ultra low interest rates. Infrastructure is something the Crikey bunker has been bleating about ever since the 2013 election but if that’s where the budget goes, I don’t expect Crikey to give them any credit for it.
Today’s announcement carries all the hallmarks of a carefully conceived and executed strategy to make the Senate workable.
I somehow missed Laura Tingle’s Quarterly Essay Political Amnesia when it was published in November and I read it last week. It was a week that exemplified her thesis that government has been hollowed out and what we now face is a series of political decisions aimed at keeping power and/or preventing the other side from winning it.
What high hopes were being expressed a year ago. If only Turnbull was PM instead of that dreadful Abbott with his tin ear and captain’s calls.
But the early comments on the change have proved only too prescient. Better suit and elocution but no change in government, just the same old self-preservation and points scoring. Paul Keating was right – Turnbull has no judgement.
Friday was an absolute nadir in my view. The Safe Schools program, aimed at lowering bullying those showing any differences, was emasculated by 43 or so conservatives. MBT is a liberal? Not on any evidence that I can see.
Laura Tingle is unfortunately correct. Governments do not know how to govern.
OneHand – how did you hear that “whisper”?
It is about the most socialist idea I’ve heard in the last 30+yrs of Oz politics – build infrastructure with national bonds – you bewdy, BRING.IT. ON!
I don’t care which “side” of the Tweedle Twins does it.
Wanna bet that, promises notwithstanding, it doesn’t happen?
Pace Rex Connors.
A quiet word to Talcum that, when playing Bluff, it is not very to play your best, or in this case, only trump.
We, the electorate, have been brainwashed once to help our local demagogue, Rupert, instal his puppet Tony as Prime Minister, who proved himself to be a buffoon. Now, Malcolm, a highly intelligent man with successful careers as top lawyer, followed by one as banker, has made a hash within a few short months of his stint as new Prime Minister. We find it difficult to blame Tony’s back stabbing for all the mess. To dig out the ABCC for another stint – a measure which has proved itself counter productive by sets of statistics, is simply stupid – particularly in view of the obvious fact that for every dollar’s worth of corruption by a trade union official, the managment of every multinational or other large company can be found guilty of corruption to the tune of thousands of dollars.
To give in to the pressure of reactionaries with 19th century minds to deprive 10% of school kids of protection from possibly fatal bullying is not the action of an intelligent man with a Heart. Malcolm, how can you face Lucy, very much a 21st century woman?
The budget planning no doubt has been changed into a hasty, ill conceived example of pork barrelling in expectation of an earlier election than originally planned. Sorry, Malcolm, it is not going to wash – the electorate will not be fooled a second time.