It’s the political parlour game equivalent of Where’s Wally? Where’s Malcolm?
Well here’s where he was last night — talking to Tony Jones on Lateline …
“If you believe there is not going to be any global action and that the rest of the world will just say, ‘It’s all too hard and we’ll just let the planet get hotter and hotter,’ … and you want to abandon all activity, a scheme like that is easier to stop …
“A direct action policy, where the government or industry was able to freely pollute, if you like, and the government was just spending more and more taxpayers’ money to offset it, that would become a very expensive charge on the budget.”
“A scheme like that” and “a direct action policy” are, of course, his own party’s climate change policy, which has not only been widely discredited by climate experts but, as Bernard Keane reports today in Crikey, has just blown out its cost base.
Like any senior politician with smarts, Turnbull knew exactly what he was saying last night. He could have refused to engage with his interviewer or stopped talking at any time. He didn’t.
With colleagues such as Turnbull, the federal opposition and its climate policy are hardly in a warm place.
Sounds like the Coal-ition’s “climate change policy” is well and truly “bi-fukated”?
Still, if his less than well-published history is any guide, the “Sweet Flash Abbott” would have a few more editions of that policy, depending on audience, up his sleeves.
It is very hard to discern Turnbull’s motive. As Michelle Grattan said this morning, he is presumably seeking to garner support for a leadership putsch before the next election. Grattan thought these comments would alienate his colleagues, but maybe it is targeted at middle size L liberals worried that the Coalition is going to get stranded on climate change again. Or maybe Turnbull believes in this so strongly that he is willing to compromise his political interest.
Or maybe it’s “Abbott pay-back” – for his naked opportunism and what it’s done to the party?
[Like any senior politician with smarts, Turnbull knew exactly what he was saying last night. He could have refused to engage with his interviewer or stopped talking at any time. He didn’t.]
He may be a senior politician but he has not that much experience. As to “smarts”, well we are comparing with other senior Liberal party politicians…..
In any case, in the interview one could see that he was initially attempting to avoid the question, batting it off to Greg Hunt (I could read the thought bubble: “Let Hunt deal with this sh*t since he is smarming up to Abbott”). But I think it was partly ego with a dash of “to hell with it, the Lib neanderthals eventually have to haul themselves out of denial.”
Grattan is correct that he is still alienating the neanderthals in his party but, unlike them , he is not interested in serving an Abbott government (they would probably try to give him Indigenous Affairs) and no one thinks everyone is happy with Abbott’s approach. He knows that the tide has to turn, and if it doesn’t and an Abbott miracle happens, he is outta there anyway.
Watching the interview last night I was initially surprised to hear Turnbull’s comments on carbon policy but, really, what else could he say? He’s already on record for crossing the floor of the House of Reps on the issue.
He risks appearing to be a hypocrite if he reneges on his former stand. Pursuing this course he presents as a man with firm convictions – at the same time throwing a light on his party leader’s facile approach to the subject. Turnbull is clever and could win the Coalition the next election – if they ditch the current dud leader.
Nor do I believe Turnbull, as a newly elected prime minister, would put the brakes on the NBN if it was partially completed.