The citizenship fiasco stopped being a mere “distraction” a long time ago, probably around the time Barnaby Joyce admitted he was a Kiwi. And last Friday the High Court escalated it to a major problem. But until Stephen Parry this week, it wasn’t a problem that reflected on the government’s internal stability and competence. Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash should have resigned or at least stood aside immediately, but the decision that they remain in place was a political one. Stephen Parry, however, has exposed something very, very wrong within the government. And it revolves around this statement about Parry from Malcolm Turnbull earlier in the week at the, in retrospect, aptly named Grove of Nations in Jerusalem:
“I learnt about it probably about the same time you did on Tuesday, yesterday.”
That is, Turnbull had been left in the dark about the president of the Senate being ineligible to sit in parliament by Parry himself and, as we learnt yesterday as the Tasmanian sought to justify his bizarre decision to stay silent, by at least one and probably several ministers in whom he confided. We know one of them is Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, whom Parry told some weeks ago. But there are others.
Apparently none thought it worthwhile to tell Turnbull — and certainly not to tell Parry he should put his hand up so his case could be referred to the High Court along with the other seven MPs and senators. No one thought to tell the Attorney-General either, which is why George Brandis was made to look a fool on Sunday when he waved away the possibility any more government MPs or senators had citizenship issues. George Brandis can make himself look a fool perfectly well. He doesn’t need other people to help.
That cabinet ministers left the PM and the AG in the dark about the Parry issue is simply extraordinary. In normal circumstances, Turnbull would be within his rights to sack a minister who so egregiously failed such a basic test of good judgement. But that’s clearly not going to happen here. There are, apparently, too many to sack, and Turnbull is too weak anyway.
And, a little like the way Trump has normalised all manner of sickening and bizarre behaviour in US politics, we’ve become numbed by repetition to the incompetence of this government. Events that would have constituted a crisis during the Gillard government are just part of the general ebb-and-flow of chaos at the moment in federal politics. Weeks declared disastrous for the government are followed by even worse weeks, but we go on as though things are somehow normal. Crises jostle for attention, each one holding our attention only briefly before another crops up to take its place. We used to talk about the need for a beleaguered government to get “clear air”. There’s about as much chance of the Turnbull government getting clear air as a Beijing pollution inspector. And if by some miracle it did, a Strangelove-like hand would lurch up to begin strangling it.
How much longer can this show go on?
While many of the MP’s do not have Law degrees, they are surrounded by a whole bunch of MP’s that do. Frydenburg’s excuse that it would be “absolutely absurd” is in itself, absolutely absurd! It doesn’t matter what he thinks, it only matters what is constitutional law. He knows that his mum is Hungarian. So, unless he’s one of the “galactically stupid”, he should have checked it out.
Frydenberg seems to have done the homework, being able to state that his mother and grandparents arrived in Australia as stateless immigrants.
But that doesn’t preclude, at a later date, Hungary granting citizenship to those who left as ‘stateless’ which, apparently, is what is in question. Again, you’d think a lawyer would dot these ‘eyes’ and cross these ‘tees’ or that a big party management structure would be across it.
“That cabinet ministers left the PM and the AG in the dark about the Parry issue is simply extraordinary.”
Not really. When your leader, a lawyer of ‘unassailable’ reputation, asserts without hesitation and with thunderous conviction, that his deputy’s legitimacy is so strong that the High Court will ‘so uphold’, then why not wait?
This just fits the pattern of incompetence and, in Turnbull’s case, enormous arrogance.
As for the electorate being ‘numb’, I think the now-intractable low poll results for this government may tell another story.
The outrage from Morrison and the PM is an amazing double standard; a poor stateless child and her parents fleeing persecution and arriving in Australia as refugees sounds a bit like the refugees on those outer islands doesn’t it?
We would all join in decrying the horror of WWII but surely a lawyer would realise that the actions of the Nazi and Fascist governments were judged illegal at the subsequent trials, so those people were not stateless: stripping of their citizenship was void.
I too am amazed by the response of Turnbull and Morrison. The outrage that questioning an MPs right to sit in parliament is somehow a with-hunt sounds like he’s lost the plot now. Following his lead, all Australians should now shriek in outrage at any branch of government seeking to investigate them for any matter (eg have you paid the right amount of tax?) as a witch hunt and we should let all citizens just voluntarily put their hand up when they are in breach. What a stupid f&$#ing thing to say.
Absolutely right and Turncoat is alt right and living in a parallel universe where coal is king.
TonyS – you pinged both aspects, the ignorance and arrogance of Talcum.
He’ll become a meme, perhaps even Macquarie’s phrase of the year “BULLTURN = insouciance without self awareness.
The way Josh Frydenberg was ducking and weaving when asked a direct yes or no question on the ABC this morning, I’m not so sure that he has done his homework so well to be able to give a direct “no” for an answer.
Clusterfuck, omnishambles … make up your own word when necessary as each day unfolds because the dictionary, any dictionary you like, proper or street, can no longer keep up.
Things may get better, events may allow us to resurrect that fine Keatingism, Unrepresentative Swill, if Ian Macdonald gets hold of the spoon – as it were.
That old Born to Rule mentality – they think rules binding we plebs don’t apply to them; look at the open slather, and who was involved, in rorting parliamentary allowances, “on the hole”.
… Anyway what do you expect when you elect a hedgehog to the Senate, to represent you?
We must be close to peak shambles, with an election within a year. Unless all the LNP MPs are as stupid as they are incompetent, the axe should fall on Turnbull very shortly – maybe someone could tell him not to get off the plane?
“Peak shambles”!
I like that Mike, might use it myself some day. Of course you can only know if we have hit peak shambles looking back, and this government has proven their ability to hit new heights of shambledom, week in and week out. I wouldn’t call it just yet.
I like peak shambles but I also like what Michelle Grattan wrote, “The Turnbull Government has become like a plane with its engines stalled, hurtling groundwards, with hopes of repowering frustrated at every turn.”
So, essentially, the current Minister for Communications, failed to communicate with the former Minister for Communications.
We can only hope it is as successful as’Cool hand Luke’
Or, to put it another way, nobody wants to play with Malcolm.
Yes, I wonder how many of the current front bench, had on their school reports, “Does not play well with the other children”?