With Scott Morrison looking out of his depth amid a shambolic rollout and widespread lockdown, it’s clear that the Liberal Party’s leadership options beyond him are sparse — Josh Frydenberg or Peter Dutton, and both come with problems.
Some time back, we cheekily suggested Peter Dutton might do a better job than Morrison of leading the country through a difficult period (or, really, leading at all, compared to the incumbent), a proposition that made more than a few readers incandescent with rage. But the dearth of talent is broader than around the leadership. As the third anniversary of Malcolm Turnbull’s ouster looms, it’s striking just how poor the current cabinet is in comparison to the government that, until Peter Dutton decided to go after Turnbull with the help of News Corp, was leading the country in 2018.
When Turnbull was removed, there was an experienced core of senior ministers and rising talent. Julie Bishop had racked up five years as foreign minister on top of her time as a middle-ranking minister in the last years of Howard; Mathias Cormann had been finance minister for five years. Christopher Pyne, another Howard government veteran, had served in various roles and been leader of the house since 2013. The most talented Nationals MP, Darren Chester, had been returned to cabinet after Barnaby Joyce’s ouster over sexual harassment allegations. Marise Payne, if underwhelming presentationally, had considerable frontbench experience.
Among the rising stars were Josh Frydenberg — put through the meat grinder over energy policy, but a survivor — and Simon Birmingham, as well as newer talent such as Kelly O’Dwyer, Craig Laundy, Ken Wyatt in the aged care and Indigenous health portfolios and Michael Keenan from the west. Moreover, Scott Morrison had performed competently as treasurer, even if inclined to front-run on policy and leak to the media — he presided over a jobs boom that saw a big rise in female participation.
If nothing else, Turnbull left the government with a strong blend of experience, the next generation of leaders and up-and-comers — the kind of mix a CEO would be pleased to leave behind at a major company.
But very rapidly, the Morrison government lost most of its experience and a major slice of its talent. Spurned by her party, Julie Bishop had had a gutful and quit immediately. Christopher Pyne bailed out at the next election. Mathias Cormann who, according to Turnbull, had long held a deep disregard for Morrison, remained, overtaking Nick Minchin as longest-serving finance minister, but announced in the middle of 2020 he was leaving.
Craig Laundy, disgusted as the antics in 2018, quite the ministry and then politics. Kelly O’Dwyer decided spending time with her family was a better option. Michael Keenan bailed out as well. Julia Banks, one of the backbench stars of the Turnbull government, left the party in disgust at bullying and Scott Morrison’s behaviour.
By that time, Josh Frydenberg had been elevated to treasurer and Payne to replace Bishop. Eventually Birmingham would replace Cormann as both finance minister and leader in the Senate. But did they step up? Frydenberg lacks Morrison’s presentational skills and prosecution of the economic narrative, but the government never had an economic narrative before the pandemic other than returning to surplus anyway.
Birmingham has been a bigger disappointment — the government is sorely missing Cormann’s capacity to pull off wins in the Senate, and the relative discipline that Cormann imposed as finance minister (at least, until Morrison sought to buy the 2019 election) has been lost. The sight of Birmingham endorsing the rorting of the car park fund recently would have had Peter Walsh and John Fahey rolling in their graves.
And in foreign affairs Marise Payne, never likely to match Bishop’s glamour, has been almost invisible, and barely less so as the alleged “Prime Minister for women”; casual voters would be forgiven for thinking far-right pro-lifer Amanda Stoker was the minister for women.
The other problem has been the failure to remove, or even stop promoting, poor performers. Peter Dutton — to whom Turnbull rightly has expressed regret about handing the Home Affairs portfolio — has moved to a bigger playground for bungling contracts at Defence. Michaelia Cash — in any average ministry of the last 30 years, a junior minister at best — has found herself attorney-general, replacing Christian Porter, meaning that portfolio now suffers from both inexperience and partisan vindictiveness. Climate denialist and scandal magnet Angus Taylor remains in energy; Greg Hunt has demonstrated his 10-point font competence in the disastrous rollout.
Worst of all, in a major blow to the average IQ of the ministry, this year the incompetent rorter Barnaby Joyce, like Mungo MacCallum’s famous unflushable turd, returned to cabinet and the deputy prime ministership, along the way expelling Chester from the frontbench along with his predecessor Michael McCormack, who as a minister was no more incompetent than most of his Nationals colleagues, while rorter Bridget McKenzie returned.
And the next generation of talent is barely seen. Andrew Hastie promises in a junior role in Defence; Michael Sukkar has done well as assistant treasurer though he was embroiled in a branch-stacking scandal. Beyond that, the cupboard is pretty bare.
The transformation in less than three years from the ministry Turnbull left behind is a testimony to talent wasted or driven out, solid performers who failed to step up, and experience that has fled for greener pastures. That didn’t look such a smart decision before the 2019 election, but now looks well-considered.
Two great articles in two days BK. Thanks for both.
Yesterday I turned 80 and for the 51+ years I have lived in Canberra I have been a politics tragic. I cannot remember any time when there has been such a dearth of federal government talent. There are people on the front bench who I think should be in gaol; lies are told; many cannot string together a coherent sentence; patently absurd statements are made; there is no understanding of issues important to women.
It is dispiriting and despairing to read the continuing litany of plain dishonesty and complete corruption. I am ready to take to the streets.
I often thought that nothing would change in Australia until there was blood in the streets (non indigenous blood of course). I’m reminded of that quote from – mmm, somebody – “if you want things to change, you don’t make them better, you make them worse”.
I’ve always suspected Dan Tooyan has an acquired brain injury, but I could be wrong.
Micallef unkindly sped up a recording of him, ‘to make him legible.’
I think that was to make him bearable.
No, it was just to reduce the amount of time we were exposed to him.
“I think that was to make him bearable.”
Impossible.
You are wrong, Audioio. Dan’s brain injury is congenital.
The way this Government works, you probably will be on the street along with your neighbours.
This immoral lot will sell the house from under you!
Except, taking to the streets, I believe is what Morrison wants because it will finally give him the reason to declare Martial Law and release the ADF as the enforcers of his “religious freedom” doctrines. Something it will take too long via the corruption of democratic processes to suit his dictatorial aspirations. His pseudo Sir Humphrey Appleby ruminations very recently, show he is now at the end of any attempt at also pseudo rational political reasoning to achieve those aims with elections being too much of a gamble, now his pork barreling excesses are out in the open for all, plus his other administrative failures, even the dumbest can see. So, watch out. When a Rat feels cornered, it is at it’s most dangerous and will attack without warning.
Thank you for mentioning Angus Taylor. He holds a special place in my heart as the most corrupt, entitled and dishonest of a corrupt, entitled and and dishonest lot. His links to a number of torts and his openly hostile rejection of any sustainable energy technologies demonstrates his complete self interest. The fact that he knifed his benefactor Malcolm Turnbull says it all, the fact that he makes it through every new scandal seemingly unscathed demonstrates the complete arrogance of this government.
Mediocrity breeds mediocrity – Howard started it by removing anyone who showed more intelligence than him – a learnt cunning over ability
To put it another way, it’s the rotten apple effect. If a rotten apple is not removed from the barrel, soon all the other apples go rotten. Simon Birmingham’s progress in the last few years, culminating in that wonderful declaration that his party will openly and proudly rort, rort and rort again, is as good an illustration as any.
I used to think @Birmo had some ability but the last few months have shown him up for what he is – a party hack bereft of morals. He really has trashed his reputation.
Blatheringham was always a substandard article feeding off taxpayers. His background is full of grog purveyors, always staunch Liberal Party donors.
Wiki: He began his career working as an electorate officer for Senator Robert Hill.
In 1997 Birmingham moved from federal to state politics, working as a ministerial advisor to Joan Hall.
Early in 2000 Birmingham moved to Canberra to become the national manager of public affairs for the grog bottom feeders the AHA
In late 2001, Birmingham was appointed chief of staff to the South Australian state minister for tourism and innovation.
His mates were booted out in 2002, so Blatheringham returned to the grog industry with the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia where he remained until he was handed a place on the leather seats in the Senate in 2007.
Never an achiever.
“He (Birmingham) really has trashed his reputation.”
Surely that will make him more attractive to Liberal voters?
That’s certainly my belief. The effect is more obvious in certain other countries, but it is still happening here. At least one of the major parties relies on tribalism more than actual politics to get voters going, and for that purpose causing revulsion or outrage in its opponents is at least as useful as doing anything to appeal to its supporters. So in this instance Birmingham will gain because he has annoyed the folks that Liberal voters enjoy annoying. Isn’t democracy great?
Conservatives the world over have never done democracy, human rights, opposed slavery, apartheid, sexism, bigotry, they support all of the atrocities. The nation held up as the pinnacle of democracy is far from it and was never intended to be so by the Framers. American styled ‘democracy’ has not been emulated anywhere in the world!
The framers constructed a system that had democratic features only,…The people had a voice, but only a voice, it was not counted as valid and could be over ridden by the racism facilitator, the Electoral College.
In 14 states in the early 19th century, state legislatures chose their EC electors directly.
The people did not vote at all.
So the plebs would have a voice in choosing their president. But—and here’s the crucial point—the people’s voice would still not be absolute.
No matter how they were selected, the EC electors would retain the independence to make their own choice.
To give the American founders their due, they were quite explicit about rejecting direct democracy with power in the hands of the voting public. The relevant debates are all described in the contemporary Federalist papers. If the USA had decided to be a democracy it would have named various parts from the Athenian model, but instead it emulated Rome. So it has a senate, and not a forum, and so on.
I wonder if you are to some extent confusing the EC with the Senate. Every state gets two senators regardless of population, a provision designed to ensure that the states which allowed slavery could not be out-voted by more populous states. All senators were directly appointed the state legislatures at first. That changed under the 17th amendment in 1913.
The purpose of the EC, which only affects presidential elections, was to intervene if the voters chose a candidate unacceptable to those in power in the states. From that point of view it’s been a farce; the electors could not even stir themselves to oppose Trump. The supposed threat of ‘faithless’ electors not following the wishes of the states’ voters has scarcely ever materialised with any significance. The real consequence of the EC is that only a few states really matter in presidential elections, particuarly large states where the winner-takes-all, and the rest can be ignored. If presidential elections were decided on the popular vote every vote in the whole nation would be equal, but under the weird workings of the EC many votes are worth little or nothing compared to others.
Corruption breeds incompetence.
And vice versa.
Yep, that’s the ‘Western liberal democracies’ in a nutshell – ‘corrupt bred from incompetence’.
As the great Chinese scholar, Martin Jacques said, when asked: ‘What’s the difference between Western and Chinese governance?’
‘The Chinese are brilliantly competent’.
‘The Chinese are brilliantly competent’ – well, yes, except when they’re not. It depends on which period of time you look at. The most recent decades show China achieving great things, never mind the human rights, and demonstrating an ability to follow intelligent long-term policies that shames Western democracies. Go back to the 1960s and the Cultural Revolution, or the late 1950s and the Great Leap Forward: not so great. The 19th C was more or less a succession of unmitigated disasters for China, including the Taiping Rebellion, a civil war that might well be the most deadly ever fought, with estimates for the total number of dead ranging up from 30 million to recent estimates of 70 million.
Then if anyone showed more intellegencen than Howard, that mouse i been trying to trap should have been leader of the Libs, it has a higher IQ than that fore lock tugging sad excuse
Ship of Fools is sinking fast, the men are manning the life rafts to leave the women try to salvage the wreck.
Which is the way this rable work, treat women with disdain also contempt whilst they try to portray them as equals.
Even Barnaby has a approval rating of in the negative, yet his quote is ” i do not care what city people think, in the country I appear to be able to walk on water” bet his ex wife and kids think otherwise.
As the article alluded to, Barnaby is probably getting confused between walking on water and re-emerging after a trip around the s-bend.
The smart women left before it started to sink. Hopefully the ‘children’ will build a better ship.
On a side point – I wonder will Clive Palmer ever build the ‘Titanic Two’ – perhaps he could rename it the ‘ScoMo’.
Labor has got the female talent right back to Gillard. Do impressed with Gillard
Sorry Penny Wong
Meh. Same, same. What disease did Gillard ‘The Mentor’ infect the Labor women with?
‘Julian Assange is a criminal’.
And, what did Gillard do after she waltzed off into the sunset, just so damned offended as she was?
She went and worked for Killary Clinton, didn’t she?!
Including in places like freakin’ Haiti, to ‘deliver education’ to those poor damn black people.
Gillard’s a fkn disgrace, but ever so attendant to her British heritage i.e. racist filth.
Raoul Peck, a Haitian, this year made a most extraordinary doco, called ‘Exterminate All The Brutes’.
It’s about the history of murderous European colonialism, focused on the Global South.
Great film maker, Peck – look up his CV. From Patrice Lumumba, to James Baldwin, the man’s a genius.
And, Gillard isn’t – she’s garbage.
Still, despite the best efforts of the rusted on ‘liberal democracies’ of the Yank devoted West, the Global South is fighting back.
Cuba sustains, Venezuela survives, the great Evo Morales leads, Peru’s tossed out the Nipponese fascist Fujimori family, Bolsonaro’s done, and Lula will return, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua will press on, and numerous African nations are engaged and engaging with the Chinamen.
The Russians have stuffed the Western sponsored and armed head choppers in Syria, the Iranians, Hezbollah and ultimately the Houthi in Yemen will form the Shia Cresent as the dominant force in the ME, Pakistan will walk the Yanks around the block, and render the Indians irrelevant, and the QUAD will become irrelevant – if it isn’t already.
Gillard, and her ilk – Pfft!
About time you did a far better study of history. And of humanity.
How dreadful is the Coalition government? Criminally negligent.
Australian mask manufacturer dumped for cheaper overseas suppliers by Scovid Morrisin!
On the factory floors of Australian mask manufacturer Med-Con, eight of the 10 machines sit silent.
”When the pandemic hit at the start of 2020, Med-Con was the only surgical mask manufacturer in the entire country.
Suddenly the small family-owned business, based in Shepparton, Victoria, was thrust into the spotlight.
It looked like borders were going to close, freezing imports. But Australian health services needed masks immediately.
The federal government begged Med-Con to boost its supply from two million to a staggering 60 million masks by November 2020.”
Some may remember that when covid surfaced at a wet market that sold the offerings of illegal trans national wildlife for the dinner table, nationals of that nation were instructed to buy up all the PPE equipment they could in our nation. Tons were shipped back ‘home’. and we had a dire shortage of PPE equipment as a result.
”Med-Con sprang into action, purchasing 10 new machines, hiring more than 100 staff and even enlisting the help of the Australian Defence Force.
Finally, in December last year, Med-Con reached its target – 60 million masks.
But once pandemic pressures started to ease, health services rapidly returned to their overseas suppliers of old. And for Med-Con, business suddenly dried up.” ABC
“They seem to have lost the concept that if we have another pandemic in a few years and borders shut again, they’re going to be reliant on local manufacturers,” Mr Csiszar said.
At the peak of production, Med-Con had 150 employees working around the clock to pump out masks.
Now, they are down to just 25 staff, often with only two machines running.
Mr Csiszar needed support from Scovid Morrisin, instead he was used and then tossed aside as were the workers.
How dreadful is that? It’s treasonable.
Someone gets it. Those who downvote you dont. Gillard ramped up our subservience to US war plans by opening a US marine base in Aus.
The far side: omg jesus must be reaching for the lightening bolt. Not to part the water but to part Barney’s brain down the centre, left from right. Clearly Barney’s brain is a half fertilised scrambled egg.
What brain, the rooter of all is an alien virus. Get ready for the next blame offensive by the Coalition on Australians. t will be modelled on this:
Republican governor says ‘time to start blaming unvaccinated’ for rise in cases
The rooter of all! That’s funny! Can’t believe the tiered Gvts would even blame the constituents for not being vaxed when there no vaxes to have. Bet the entire liberal NAT party and their followers have been vaxed as essential workers. Shhh don’t tell. Labour are the devils. Judgement day.
but you should never underestimate the contempt that the Nationals have for the latte sipping inner city elite, and how much that resonates with their constituants, while the taxes those latte sippers pay are siphoned off to support those proudly independant self reliant National Party members..
Ironic as plenty of latte sipping going on in Armidale while the farmers shop in the expensive stores.
Well they will be some of the few that do in the NE electorate. The greed infested farmers and rural voters returned him with a bigger miajority
And remember that Moree farmer Ian Turnbull will die in jail for murdering an environmental officer. His son had the gall to say there would be more murders if NSW didn’t do what they wanted and trash the native veg act. It worked a treat. Joyce is their man alright.
The 2014 murder of Glen Turner, near Moree, in north-western New South Wales, copped Turnbull a sentenced of 35 years in prison with a non-parole period of 24 years. Farmer Turnbull was being prosecuted by the Land Court and Environment Court for illegal land clearing at the time; he’d not had a conversation with Glen Turner for two years before he shot him! Farmers used to phone me asking what were we going to do about building more dams!
And the son of the murdering farmer? Turnbull’s son Grant Turnbull said a similar tragedy would happen unless the state’s native vegetation laws were changed.
The only reason he “appears” to walk on water is because there’s only dry river beds to walk on once he’s been nearby.
Frydenberg might look good relative to his current Cabinet colleagues, but don’t forget it was Frydenberg who phoned around AGL’s board in 2017 to get new CEO Andy Vesey sacked over plans to retire Liddell in 2023 and replace it with renewable energy (see Mike Seccombe’s Saturday Paper article, https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/07/10/exclusive-frydenberg-pushed-agl-sack-boss/162583920012027).
Frydenberg’s intervention initiated the greatest value loss in AGL’s history – and this clown got rewarded with Treasury?
Frydenberg strikes me as being as vacant as Morrison. The policy making area of his brain seems to just buzz with static.
Abso-effing-lutely. Thick as.