Judging by this news item in the Fairfax media, tonight’s Four Corners warts and all profile of Malcolm Turnbull sounds like a bucket load of fun.
In a profile on the shadow treasurer to air on the ABC’s Four Corners tonight, Mr Turnbull is identified as the insider who passed on secret notes indicating Mr Packer would publicly stick to the law but would privately exercise editorial control over Fairfax.
Timely because it comes slap bang in the middle of the run up to Peter The Ditherers biography launch and important questions about Liberal Party leadership issues and tensions arising from that event.
Fun prime time viewing for the whole family. Bring the popcorn and consider this an open thread if you’re watching tonight.
And in the right corner….
Look viewers there are at least five contestants trying to fill that seat.
No one on the left side for some reason.
I won’t be at home this evening (Greens’ branch meeting), but I’ll record it to watch tomorrow. Sounds like it’ll be a hoot.
“I won’t be at home this evening (Greens’ branch meeting),…..”
Why are they always on a Monday?
Anyway, my condolences and do not forget the flask.
As a former groundie for a Tree surgeon I’ll be very interested in his policy on branch-stacking.
Oh great. I did have some faint hope that Turnball would be someone concerned with illiberal consequences of media concentration. But it’s all one happy family innit – the journos, the pollies, the fat cats.
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Don’t have a TV, grateful for any juicy goss posted.
btw they generally make the show available on-line afterwards
“btw they generally make the show available on-line afterwards”
And, Chris (a different one), btw, has it occurred to you that many who read here have crap internet service that would make that wish impossible?
Well that’s all very well and good Chris but I don’t have a TV for a very good reason. I’m a crashing bore and a snob. And I’m lazy.
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And so is Turnball.
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You might not like him. But you must admit that he’s put forward the best reasons ever for a Republic. He can’t explain our system of government to his Chinese business associates.
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What better reason could there be for changing it?
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Tat-ta must go. Simone Windamere’s doing cucumber on rye and the crusts are off. Lovely pearls Simone. They really do bring out the reds of your corneas when you’re driving your Canyonero backwards over the inadequately crushed bones of Green Left Weekly vendors.
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Worth doing well and all that. Bosey! Where’ve you been Old Fruit. I thought your Ode to a Nostril was simply splendid.
My suspicion is that Mal, the right wing pony, will be run too early.
And Tony, big ears, will be the last horse standing.
Get out before it is too late comrades!
Interested in what Phillip Admans see’s in him…maybe its raising anemic gelding bum steers as a neighbor to big Kerry for so many years.
There was a bond already
It’s a strategy to deal with over-population. Branch meetings on a Mon night give you even more reason to top yourself on Tuesday.
joe2 @ 7 – well I wasn’t saying people *have* to watch it on the internet – just take it as an informative message for those who don’t have crap internet service
There are still quite a few people around who don’t realise
just how much ABC content is available for download afterwards, something I think the ABC should be congratulated on – especially making extra content available for free like extended interviews. The ABC is doing a much better job of using the internet than the other channels.
Adrien said:
Heh, np – I know a few people who got rid of their tv because they spend all of it on the internet anyway and thought you might be one of those.
Jeez, Turnbull could have paid for that. He’ll be ecstatic.
BBB
Why’s Dolly got time to give “extended interviews” to 4 Corners? Isn’t he meant to be busy sorting out all the woes of Cyprus?
Well that was interesting as a package, but outside of the Fairfax ‘deep throat’ scoop not much else that we didn’t already know. He was certainly dammed with faint praise buy a whole bunch of folks. I also enjoyed the rogues gallery of characters Turnbull has been associated with over the years. A somewhat useful addition to the public record.
If there was any indecision left in his mind, I feel this program will see Costello off. All his record can offer in competition is a decade reclining in a hammock, cruising through the worldwide + resources boom.
A fairly balanced analysis of Turnbull, I thought.
A colourful career with highs and lows (mostly highs), a peice of revenge against Packer which had the unintended consequence of saving our democracy, and an HIH scandal which is just the liquidator sueing the big targets (which, as an accountant, I can sure you this is what they do, it’s the best cost/benefit option when dealing with limited liquidated funds, to sue the people with liability insurance and/or deep pockets) which could come back to haunt him, and an acknowledgement of his inherent talent and charisma, but real personality flaws.
I agree, it didn’t tell us anything new, but it was a useful contribution.
@Rx true, Turnbull is a lifelong doer, Costello nothing but a ditherer, the contrast is stark.
Malcolm (c.1605) is a play by William Shakespeare. It is often seen as an archetypal tale of the the desire for power and the betrayal of loyalty.
http://classiclit.about.com/od/macbethshakespeare/a/aa_macbethquote.htm
“Nothing is but what is not.”
Turnbull’s one big foray into popular politics, the republic referendum, was a complete flop because Turnbull wouldn’t listen to his confederates who correctly warned him that his minimalist model stank in the nostrils of the voters.
This is not a good omen for a man who aspires to the highest electoral office in the country, or for the party that he wants to lead.
Turnbull is the classic case of a clever fellow who overestimates his own cleverness.
Are the Libs clever enough to avoid the temptation to make him their leader?
If they aren’t we may well get to see what a silvertail Mark Latham looks like.
Abbot actually seemed to lick his lips each time he had the opportunity to twist the dagger a little further.
That was terrific light entertainment that shone a light on a vacuum. “I have no ambition other than to be the member for Wentworth”.
The gags just write themselves.
Didn’t seen Brendan Nelson’s name among producers though which was a little odd.
Abbott’s “endorsement” was particularly funny!
There’s no doubt that Turnbull’s clever – superficially at least. But is he a good politician? Aside from failing to get a deal on the Murray-Darling, he’s all over all the place on economic policy and the besotted press haven’t pulled him up on it.
Before the budget he warned Labor not to make big spending cuts, then he said Labor should have made deeper cuts, and now he’s gone back to saying Labor cut back too much (he made that last switch in the space of one week). It’s so mouth-droppingly shameless I almost have to admire it.
If a Labor ministers were such a dog’s breakfast on economic matters they’d be crucified by the media. There seems to be a bit of a class cringe when it comes to the media. It seems well-spoken former merchant bankers from North Sydney can get away with talking absolute twaddle on economic matters.
Intriguing how controversial business deals don’t seem to affect Lib. pollies but are career wrecking in terms of party leadership aspirations for Labor guys – Red Ted Theodore, Eddie Ward in the NG Timber scandal (though the crap surrounding the Brisbane Line Controversy and the fact that he was on the far left of the party and lots of people still hated him because he had been a Langite might have helped there), and so on. Maybe I have a failing memory and some LP-ers might be able to put me right, but I can’t think of one Conservative who has not eventually flourished after such a scandal, though none who achieved party leadership.
The idea of Malcolm in the dock while leading the Libs in the next Fed. election campaign almost makes my mouth water. Maybe this is the real reason the RWDBs don’t want him in the leadership? They may not be as hard-headed as the ALP because of their devotion to ideology, but they can count, and assess the potential electoral impact of events.
(Didn’t start watching the program till about 9 pm.)
Shouldn’t the idea of an Irish Republican Liberal Prime Minister rule both Turnbull and Costello out?
I never think of Costello as being Irish. Who’s ever heard of an Irish Baptist?
As opposed to an Italian Jehovah’s witness – and believe me, there are plenty of those in Australia.
The HIH/FAI/Goldman Sachs stuff should have taken up more air-time. And who wouldn’t yell at Michael Yabsley.
Adrien, here is smh article from 2004 which covers all the same bases as the 4 corner program tonight -
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/24/1095961858566.html
this quote from the paper piece is classic:
Well, the rumour about the Packer business, if true, explains a couple of things:
a) Why so many of the Libs would die in a ditch rather than let Turnbull be leader.
b) Why, now that Jamie is off running casinos for a living, it no longer matters that Turnbull may or may not have run interference on dad’s deal over 15 years ago.
I daresay that Kerry would even have had some grudging respect for such a move – after all, he’d have acted the same given the same circumstances
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Turnbull would be very pleased with the 4 Corners show. He comes out looking like a feisty contender. I hope he takes the leadership soon, and brings some sparkle into Circus Time, but it will be over the dead bodies of the hard-line social conservatives like Minchin, and presumably the Oz commentariat whose little hearts were so set on Hammock Man.
“…but I can’t think of one Conservative who has not eventually flourished after such a scandal, though none who achieved party leadership.”
Sounds about right, Paul. I suppose Reith is the most recent example.
Yeah, Don. I mean look at Askin.
Ours aren’t that bad – there’s very little procedural guff (although last night had its moments), they finish at a reasonable time (9-ish), and the couple whose house they are at provide a quite reasonable homebrew afterwards.
Excellent! The Free Beer Party! Where do I sign?
I dunno, Paul. Phil Lynch never really recovered from the bottom-of-the-harbour thing …
Doubly ironic, as he seems to have been innocent (-ish).
Phil included “buy a whole bunch of folks”
did you mean the branch stacked new members in Wentworth when he rolled Mr King?
david,
I think with Phil Lynch, it was an obscure land deal (“The Stumpy Gully Affair”) that caused him much harm. Malcom Fraser couldn’t abide persons making $ in a dodgy way. Sacked a couple of Ministers who allowed their staff to get import duty waived at an airport (“The Colour TV Affair”), didn’t he?
“Bottom of the Harbour” rather reflected on a whole Cabinet and on the High Court, didn’t it?
Jeez, Ambigulous, it was over 30 years ago, and I’ve destroyed a lot of brain cells in the interim. My (possibly unreliable) recollection is that Phil Lynch was accused of being involved in the bottom-of-the-harbour scheme, along with most of the rest of Melboune’s Old money, and paid the price, opening the way for John Winston Howard to become one of the worst treasurers we’ve ever had as an interesting side-effect. He died before he could be convicted / cleared, but his widow still claims he had nothing to do with it.
Points off to the 4Corners journos for trying to insert themselves into the narrative far too much. The bit where they included the camera rolling as he attempted to make a libs ad was a bit of gutter journalism. That sort of stuff should stay behind the veil – every one of them does it (the journos most of all) yet it was an attempt to show him as a flawed narcissist.
I came away favourably impressed with the fellow. Clearly very smart, and much more palatable to me than most of the awful sorts on the opposition front bench.
Jeez, David, in my case it’s dementia praecox; you could be right about Phil Lynch.
Points off to 4 Corners for the (obligatory) sneer that Lib members are “well-heeled”. Some are of course, as are some ALP, some Democrats, some Nats, etc. A party that gets 40% of the vote must be supported by quite a few less-well-heeled too. Or are we all rich now??