As Tobias Ziegler observes at Pure Poison, there’s a certain irony in David Penberthy’s observation at The Punch that “Utegate” has been a diversion from issues far more important to the public and to the future of our Commonwealth.
Nevertheless, one of its effects will no doubt be to further delegitimise politics and politicians in the public mind. In fact, one of the central concerns some pollies will have at Turnbull’s ‘over-reaching’ is that it risks exposing too much of the backstage of the political game – tawdry contacts with public servants, the self-absorption of those hooked up to the Parliament House rumour mill, and the favours for mates dynamic. It would not be surprising to see a move to put the whole thing back in its box gaining momentum. That would enable all the pollies and journos who should have egg all over their faces to avoid further embarrassment and scrutiny, for one thing.
Opposition frontbenchers such as Joe Hockey might be raving about the public duty to hold governments to account (as he was last night in a truly incoherent performance on Lateline), but I suspect the political class might be casting an eye at the scandals engulfing the institution of Parliament in the UK and thinking – ‘there but for the grace of God, go we’…
It’ll be interesting to observe whether the temperature is turned down a notch.
Update: The polls are in.
I think that Turnbull lacked for a wise old hand to temper his impetuousness. Parliament House is always filled with the fog of rumour and drenched in the sweat of those who would turn the course of history. It is a measure of political maturity to take nothing one hears or sees — nothing — at face value.
Turnbull is basically still a political journeyman. A novice even. Undone by wishful thinking.
And now the Coalition are desperately scared of an election, it would seem! They must know something Newspoll doesn’t…
Hence the vote to pass the Alcopops bill. Though Turnbull couldn’t corral all the troops in the lower house.
I agree. Utegate provides a graphic example of the insularity of politics and its disconnection from the interests of those in whose name these tawdry theatrics are supposedly conducted. The tiny minority who are actually interested line up tribally and everyone else turns off. I was thinking yesterday that there’s an opening going begging for an Andrenesque indepenedent to stand up in the House of Representatives and point out to her/his colleagues that there is graphic evidence of the consequences payable for political self-absorption and self-indulgence on this scale.
I think that may be right, Geoff. Interestingly, I noted that all three sitting Independents in the House voted to censure Turnbull.
“one of its effects will no doubt be to further delegitimise politics and politicians in the public mind”
I was going to write “that’s not saying much”, considering politicians rate just above car salesmen* in trustworthiness (beating only telemarketers**), but then I remembered that this involves politicians’ dealings with a car salesman and bureaucrats – a triple whammy.
* And it is mostly salesMEN, isn’t it? I’ve never met a female car seller.
** I love that domestic cleaners beat religious ministers, and that sex workers beat real estate agents.
Wot JC said.
I suggest that emolegate makes politics seem more interesting and captivating than it really is.
If you aren’t strong you must be cunning. In a lawless world cunning is a quality that must be sought in a statesperson.
Emolegate proves that Turnbull isn’t cunning enough to cut it in the lawless world.
I think there’s something in that Mark. As the saying goes, democracy is like sausages — the less you see how it’s made, the better for your appetite.
I confess to feeling more than a little nauseous at how this event has played out, and what it reveals about successive governments’ and oppositions’ reliance on non-official, non-transparent, and largely below-the-radar information channels to advance their agendas — and how this fails to serve the public interest or see the will of the people implemented.
There is, I think an irreconcilable tension between the need to preserve the integrity of an elected government and secure it from sabotage, versus the imperative to prevent the state from gaining a tyrannic stranglehold on information. Public servants are grist to that mill. Leaks are the consequence of individuals unable to separate their conscience from their duties, but without the ethical courage to resign their positions.
I have been at times a member of the APS. I clearly remember signing, upon employment, that rather fearsome document of the APS charter and attached legislation that commits a federal public servant not to divulge any information except through approved channels. The bit about the 2-year jail term that applies if convicted of a wilful breach brought my mind into very sharp focus about the seriousness of that duty.
I also have friends in the service who, at times, have had the duty to implement agency-level policies with which they vehemently disagreed. Really, they had two ethically acceptable options: carry out their duties faithfully, or resign their positions. But sabotage was never an option, being as it’s a traducing of the legitimate expression of legislation devolving from an elected government.
I don’t know where all this fits into the discourse about ‘politicisation of the public service’. To my mind, a government is elected, and public service agencies are there to implement legislation crafted by the people’s House. If a public servant can’t do that, they should resign. If they honestly believe there is a tyrannic stranglehold on power by a government, their ethical duty as a citizen is to resign and agitate to bring down that government at the ballot box. To try to do it by white-anting and leaking is a betrayal of democratic principles and processes.
That’s my highly idealistic and naive view. Seeing how the sausage is really made this week has put me off my lunch.
Hockey wasn’t so much incoherent as evasively loathsome – there was more dodging and weaving in last night’s performance than in Bruce Lee’s entire career. Tony Jones had to pull a Paxham on him over this very question:
“Have you spoken to Malcolm Turnbull about the extent of his contacts with Godwin Gresch?”
By the end of the interview, his top lip was shining.
This is why it was remarkable to have the PM and the rest go so hard on it, surely the scrutiny wiill be damaging to them all eventually?
Also, can we please stop using the phrase “utegate” immediately?
“If a public servant can’t do that, they should resign. If they honestly believe there is a tyrannic stranglehold on power by a government, their ethical duty as a citizen is to resign and agitate to bring down that government at the ballot box. To try to do it by white-anting and leaking is a betrayal of democratic principles and processes.”
One person’s ‘unethical public servant’ can of course – and is – easily framed as another’s ‘plucky whistleblowwer,’ dependent on the issue and the political perspective……
yes Geoff and depending on whether or not they forged evidence.
In the tiniest corner of the back section of the Australian yesterday was an itty bitty story about yet more evidence emerging of Bush and Blair’s pre-meditation of illegal war, this time about Bush suggesting painting US warplanes in UN colors and trying to provoke Saddam into shooting them down, and Blair being put under pressure to testify at an inquiry. BORING! More Ute-Gate please!
No, Geoff. That is precisely the kind of ethical contorsion I seek to prevent.
For a range of current and historical reasons to do with practical ethics in a democracy, I believe the the only ethical course available to public servants who find themselves unable for reasons of personal conscience to faithfully execute their duties is to resign their post, or at the very least request a transfer to a post they can faithfully undertake.
That cuts the gordian knot because that way no ‘unethical public servants’ or ‘plucky whistleblowers’ can arise. In both cases, they’ll have resigned and manned the barricades, picket-lines, or campaign-office telephone banks…
Some years ago I wrote a very detailed study of the political history of the 1940s in Australia. The differences between then and today were that the public service was much smaller and its heads very influential with PMs regardless of party. The PM (Curtin) did his own leaking, the same way Rudd and Turnbull urge on the press gallery today. Leakers were treated with utter disdain (the soldier who leaked the supposed Brisbane Line plan missed out on a promotion or a decoration, can’t remember which.) The people leaked against, mainly a senior public servant, were furious. The pollie leaked to never identified the identity of the leaker till his dying day – so Turnbull is following a tradition, I suppose. But then again, back then, the press was censored if they were thought to endanger national security. Caldwell, who didn’t like journos anyway, had a ball with his blue pencil, One can only conclude the more things change the more they stay the same.
And, FWIW, Fielding’s sister in law was apparently ill with swine flu. Fielding took her to the hospital (as one does with rellie/friends who are sick. And now he’s siiting in the Senate taking Tamiflu.
My point is, if it is the dreaded deadly pig-cold and it spreads and spreads across the Parliament and people die … and the Libs lose their majority in the Senate … and they can’t replace ‘em cause everybody’s too sick -
I reckin I could write 4000 on the possibilities, but I won’t. And Fielding really does have a sick rellie he was in contact with.
But the thing is, we’re all fascinated with it. Look at the number of posts. And with good reason. It’s a page turner with spies, moles, corruption, an attempt to bring down a PM with a forgery. Much more entertaining than the drudgery of policy work. It’s drama.
Look at Hockey on ‘Lateline’ last night. You don’t see too many performances like that on tv. My favourite part was Jones asking; “Are you worried you’ve done something illegal?’ Hockey: ‘Um, ah.” (looking like the proverbial rabbit and headlights). Jones; “Are you worried you’ve done something illegal?” Hockey; “Um, Ah. No!” Seemed like a dead man walking to me.
“temperature is turned down a notch”
If I were Rudd I’d do exactly what he is doing. Turnbull is like an army that has attacked too quickly and left its flank exposed. Rudd is in fact demonstrating frightening competence as a politician, and as unfortunate as it may be that such is required to survive in our present parliament, none of us forget the brutal right wing political manipulator we put up with for over a decade before Rudd.
He took a bleeding battering as he sized up the chaos, determined that he was on solid ground, and calmly gained the measure of Turnbull. Now he is destroying him.
The moment Truffles accepted the race bait game and put the poor refugees back in the spotlight, I lost any interest in empathising with his feelings.
Tim Blair has quite a measured piece at http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25675132-5001031,00.html
If Hockey was incoherent on “Lateline”, I think he was pretty close to incoherent straight after the May Budget.
I heard him on ABC Radio on either the Wed or Thurs that week. He was all over the shop. Kept going on about “The Treasury projections are based only on Trewasury ASSUMPTIONS you know.”
The subsequent Clarke/Dawe comic “Hockey interview” was all the more delicious because it sounded like a transcript of his own words….
It appeared to me that he hadn’t got around to familiarising himself with the key points in the Budget. Is he a very lazy person? If so, Opp. Leader is not the right job. Or does he have no advisors?
I was puzzled that he was floundering so badly. It was the sort of performance that had John Kerin sacked.
I have a theory that the legal minds in the Coalition partyroom (and probably just the Liberal contingent, the Nats apparently being a useless appendage) are, on the whole, of a very erratic quality. They range from snooty barristers to corporate law types (& more corporate than law) to people who are renowned resume padders (remember the great white female hope of the early nineties?). That the leader of the Opposition is a snooty barister who appears not to be able to seek and take good advice makes it all the worse.
People here have pointed out how screwy Turnbull’s evidentiary standards are RE the fake email. Yet what makes us think any Liberal leader with or without a legal degree wouldn’t have been caught out with this hoax?
OTOH, the ALP’s legal brains trust is more, well, like a functioning brains trust. I reckon Caucus during the wilderness years could rely on a mix of union officials and labour lawyers (e.g. Gillard with her background at Slater & Gordon) that could work as a security council to give the leader a backstop. Of course you could argue that any layman who can make it onto the Opposition frontbench, particularly those with ministerial experience, should have a good enough BS detector to suss out fake emails, or that staffers should be able to do so for their bosses.
I just think the ALP has multiple barriers in place to stop from getting caught out on crazy stuff like this—but for some reason Turnbull’s mob doesn’t.
It’s institutional.
Is Turnbull just hanging on until the Winter Recess? Will the next sitting of Parliament see a third Opposition Leader since 2007?
Yes but John Kerin was ALP. Big difference there.
It’s also laziness combined with the whole born to rule mentality.
Far easier to get back to your rightful position through a confected scandal, than by doing the hard graft of policy work.
What, higher standards expected, tsssk? Well I suppose he was a Govt Minister, not an Oppo spokesperson….
The other advantage the Labor MPs have now, Nickws, is access to dozens of public servants & Ministerial advisors. Apparently Labor is back in govt now. Many Oppositions flounder for a few years.
these people should look to the UK for the consequences of a genuine and complete loss of faith in politicians. It’s worth closing up shop a bit to keep that from happening. But I think Oz is a long way off from that.
cough
Interesting to watch question time today. All the dixers from Labor MP’s were relevant questions, all the questions from the opposition were yet again about (I do loathe the ute-gate label) the beat up.Hockey sounded shrill and hysterical, Turnbull is sounding more and more like a bloke trying to hide something.
Almost like the opposition do have something to hide and are therefore using the attack on Swan as a distraction. But maybe I watch too much tellie.
Interesting seeing Turnbull on 7.30 report. I thought MT came close to losing it with Red Kerry at one point. Gotta give him points for showing up though, which you certainly can’t give to Wayne Swan who has declined twice this week to front up to Kezza.
Attack has always been used as a method of defence.
Ambigulous, but the Opposition does have public servants at their beck and call.
Anyway, I was thinking of the fact that Labor in Opposition never went this far out of bounds—except when Latho was making policy off the top of his head on radio shows.
I can’t imagine Beazley falling for a transparent hoax at the time of Stan Howard’s troubles. (Ralph Willis as treasurer during the ’96 election is the exception to the rule, IMHO.)
Just catching up on this now. Christ what a steaming turd Penbo has created at The Punch, just like the Tele which is clearly still following his template.
A couple of weeks out and The Punch picks a loser of an issue on it’s way to the bottom. Nice editorial skills there Penbo.
yes, Nickws, quite correct!
Labor eventually learnt (after 1975 I reckon) how pleasant it was to be in Govt and how ill-discipline was death. Yes, step forward JF Cairns, LK Murphy, C Cameron, EG Whitlam, you old stagers.
The continuing staggers were less evident after 1977 I reckon. The remnants toughened up and learnt to keep their mouths shut when internal controversies were raging. At present the Libs & Nats seem to enjoy nothing better than a good big leak. Leak, spray, deluge. Yes, step forward B Joyce, W Tuckey, P Costello, B Bishop.
It’s the old-timers who are causing the trouble: Tuckey, Schultz, Bishop B (you could put Georgiou and the other voices of conscience on refugee debt in that category, but I won’t). I was expecting Sophie Mirabella to be adopting a higher profile than she has, especially after Belinda Neal so graciously gave her a sympathetic appearance with her “demon child” comment – but, thankfully, no.
It’s inevitable that the temperature will go down – this issue hasn’t got the legs to go far beyond this week. The fact that Rudd and Turnbull don’t differ much on policy issues means that the conflict will be personal.
Nickws: by your logic, Mark Latham would be a diligent minister, biding his time, and Nathan Rees would be a mid-ranking staffer. “It’s institutional” my arse.
“Turnbull is basically still a political journeyman. A novice even. Undone by wishful thinking.”
Turnbull is a bloody idiot. He should learn that he can’t carry on in the politics of government the way he carried on in private business. As for the lawyer in him – notwithstanding some brilliant moments in his career, he seems to have spent a lot of time arguing unsubstantiated cases effectively for people with a lot of money to throw around. As a well-paid parasite.
Anyway how come Kevin Rudd, who is just as much of a ‘novice’ as Turnbull really, has not made the same mistakes? His Kevin07 election campaign against Howard was a model of sunny benevolence, strategic concurrences and endless sitting on beaches and rolling out of dreamy visions. As for bull-at-a-gate Turnbull, well I can only hope he has the Liberal Party’s full support. On second thoughts…
I mean life has been quite rosy since Howard toppled off the perch. The Ruddbot has been whirring along, Swan was losing some of his nervousness at last, Julia Gillard has been looking good, I could at last concentrate on my studies and do some sewing and now Turnbull has come thundering into the political arena. Turnbull, with his top hat and his brawling, overweening ambition, his hypocritical involvement/investments in the kind of companies that strip the Solomon Island of trees and his short, sharp, secret assignations with moles against greasy, sooty brick walls in dark alleyways – where is it all going? Considering the standard is pretty low elsewhere around some of the other Anglo and European parliaments, is he going to get to be Prime Minister?
Silvio Berlusconi… how can you NOT admire the bloke???
Andrew E, I did write about Latham’s amateurishness @ 29.
I stand by my idea that the genuine lawyers in the Liberal partyroom let down their side—in fact I think it’s best to expand that group to include all the ex-ministers and serious policy wonks while excluding the resume padders I referred to (Bishop, Mirabella).
I’m surprised that someone with as much invested in the idea of moderate Liberalism as yourself wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to shift blame from the token (& imperfect) moderate leader onto the party’s mechanisms.
Silvio is not a Statesman, he’s just a very naughty boy
In another life I once had a lot to do with Canberra, gave evidence at senate committees, sat on a White Paper Committee, spent a lot of time with various Departments.
Suddenly I found myself with moles. Never asked for them but they sort of attached themselves to me without any soliciting on my part. I became aware after a while (I am a slow learner) that the entire place is one seething mass of gossip, back-stabbing, hidden agendas and attention seeking behaviour. It was a really traumatic experience for a simple country boy. The really scary thing is that everywhere you go there you will find Godwin Grech types lurking.
You see them out of the corner of your eye or you see them sitting behind you against the wall when you sit at those big oval tables. When you turn around they are gone.
Canberra is a seriously strange and dangerous place. The innocent country lad that was Huggy died there and was replaced by this cynical dried out husk that is reduced to posting on this site and scratching a living in the turgid swamps of of Brisbane.
Huggy
Mercurius, what about whistleblowing of corruption or other illegal activity?
Imagine, for the sake of argument, that Rudd and Swan WERE acting corruptly. Wouldn’t it be appropriate for Grech to make that public Ditto for Iraqi WMDs, bribing Saddam Hussein, etc.
I don’t think the mandate from we the people includes such things.
As an aside, is it just me or is the whole “Swan still has questions to answer” totally bizarre? I mean the guy (Grant) got nothing, nada, zip. If Swan DID take a personal interest in the case, he did so in such a way that all the bureaucrats and Ford Credit were clearly aware they could turn Grant down if he didn’t qualify – that doesn’t sound like much pressure from the 2nd most powerful person in the land, does it?
But Josh, Swan should be censured severely for FAILING to help a Labor Mate. That kind of behaviour spits in the face of traditional values.
Turnbull is absolutely correct in demanding that Swan be punished for breeching tribal tradition.
Katz @40, raofl. I must admit I hadn’t thought of it in that light but you’re absolutely right. Where’s the burning torches and the lynch mob running through the streets and is it too late to organise them?
Swannie could be nailed to a rusty ute and paraded through the streets, while being pelted with hard copy of emails and faxes by angry labour mates lining the route, then bunged in the stocks before being burned in effigy at barbeques around the country. Curiously Australian.
OTOH, perhaps every year on the winter solstice we should burn an effigies of Godwin Grech, Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey all clutching crook emails and faxes.
re huggybunny “everywhere you go there you will find Godwin Grech types lurking.”
We need more anaylsis of the role of PM&C. How the ideology of “we are the servants of the minister” (rather than servants of the public) is inculcated during stints in PM&C and then contentless managers are promoted out like octopus tentacles, lording over lesser public servants committed to the people and programs.
Then too much time is spent preparing SES to face Senate Estimates grilling and not enough effort spent and delivering effective programmes to the public. As for “due dilligence” in monitoring outsourced service delivery, better not even go there for the same SES may have to provide the evidence of findings of corrupt private industry at Question Time or in Senate Estimates!
”
I can imagine.
But this thing seems to have taken it to a whole new level.
Here we have SOMEONE in the public service with the skills and motivation to forge an email in order to discredit government ministers.
In this case the targets of this attack had the power and influence to demand a proper investigation. They were important enough to ensure appropriate resources were deployed.
What happens when the target of such a scheme is some poor yob much further down the food chain?
It’s a worry.
Andrew Wilkie left the Office of National Assessments… and copped hell for it. Based mostly on “leaks” from Downer’s office.
If this report is accurate, Turnbull and Abetz have some very serious questions to answer (although it is the Daily Telegraph…):
Malcolm Turnbull’s secret meeting with Treasury official
“MALCOLM Turnbull had a meeting with Godwin Grech at which he was shown the now notorious fake email supposedly sent to the Treasury official by a senior Rudd adviser.”
Andos @45, maybe Grech was setup, which was a feeling I had early in the piece, not as a joke by a wag in the office but perhaps by someone who knew he’d been drip feeding the Liberals for years and finally decided to out him without making the denunciation personally.
Oooh, if only. It’s like the machinations of the Elizabethan court. Where’s Francis Walsingham when you need him?
Turnbull meet Barwick, Barwick meet Turnbull.
jane@46: he’s apparently ‘hundreds of years dead’
… convenient, huh?
That’s possible Jane@46, of course.
Another explanation could be, having thought he had enough goods on Swannie, an alleged p/s official felt the need to stitch up the P.M., as well, for good measure.
Then again he might have been a double agent working for labor and the libs having read too many Spycatcher type books.
Oh hang on, we shouldn’t overlook the possibility it was just another Green stunt, after all.
Leinad @48, can’t we resurrect him? If we gave him a bath, some decent dental work and some deodorant, they’d hardly notice him stalking the corridors of power. Come to think of it, in his present state he could probably pass for Phillip Ruddock.
joe2 @49, not a bad plotline. You could run with it and make a squillion as the new Dan Brown or John Le Carre. I, as your publicity person and chief negotiator, would cream off 50% of the profits and confine you to a dank cellar and/or attic knocking out political thrillers until I had a decent fortune.
Or not. Sigh!
jane@50
What makes you think it hasn’t been done already…
Now it seems the Libs and Fielding have combined in the Parliamentary Privileges Committee to stymie any enquiry into the leaks made to the Libs. There’s a so so article in the Australian. I found a really good article on it in the Brisbsane Times I think I was going to link to, but I lost it before I got around to it. Seems to have just disappeared off Google News.
“the libs having read too many Spycatcher type books.”
Oh, noooooo don’t publish it Godwin. I don’t want you prosecuted for writing your book, I don’t want Groundhog Day
You resurrect your Zombie Francis Walsingham for the Liberals, I’ll commission Zombie Gaspar de Guzmán y Acevedo, Conde-Duque de Olivares for the ALP, jane and Leinad. They can toss for Zombie Felix Dzerzhinsky.
Unfortunately for your Undead Catholic-Commie Nexus of Plotting, Hoges, I hold the trump: Not-Even-A-Zombie Vladimiro Lenin Montesinos Torres, formerly of the most aptly named intelligence service ever who will quite happily trade a lifetime in the Callao for a chance to prove his mettle against your hoary sacks of bones.
You rang?
My conspiracy theory is that Costello set it up as as farewell present to the Libs. He would have known about Grech leaking from the Treaury. He could have written the email knowing that Grech would pass it on to Turnbull. Hasta la vista Turnbull.
Zombie Sir Roger Hollis could play for both sides.
Sir Rog did exactly that in real (pre-zombie) life, according to the book that Malcolm defended against that dreadful Mrs Thatcher way back when.
I like Fine’s theory @ 57.
Other possibility is that Turnbull and Abetz have been keeping a gimp in the below ground area of the Treasury Building.
I think in Zombie Spies The Boardgame™, Katz, everyone plays every side at the same time. You’ll need 64 dice, rolled 1024 times each turn, after which the board is wiped clean of chalk marks. Players are allowed to pass cards to each other but only if nobody else can see. The winner must give each of the losers a suitcase full of money, someone else’s passport and a gun.
Are you sure you aren’t confusing Zombie Spies The Boardgame™ with the Department of Defence Procurement?
No, that’s a much simpler game involving a request form, a pencil, some industrial solvent and a lot of huffing.
The Dept of Rhyming Slang wishes to unveil:
By golly, man, you’re a Godwin Grech!
Brilliant stuff, H&R
Hope you don’t mind if I chip in…
Having a jolly old Christopher Pyne
We’re through the looking-glass, people @51,
Nah, Walsingham’s corpse looks too lifelike.
After a Barry Crocker of a week
Turnbull’s reputation is Kevin Rudd.
My conspiracy theory is that a costello supporter cooked it up and set it up for Costello’s retirement, so that he could destroy Turnbull and have the party beg Costello to stay on as leader out of desperation. Like maybe that would win Costello the support he never had in more sanguine times.
sg
Unlikey to succeed, even with an Oppo Leader doing “dead man walking” auditions, they STILL won’t tap $weetie on the shoulder; they fear that sensation where the tapping hand sinks into the apparent broad shoulder and plummets into the emptiness beyond – a horrifying intimation of their own mortality…
Have they watched too many movies? Occam’s Razor says that’s not necessary: they observed $weetie prevaricating and sulking over many years, most recently the infamous dummy-spit after his Leader was assisted out of the Big House by *gasp* some electors.
It’ll have to be someone else.
but there is no-one else. Maybe originally they were waiting for Turnbull to lose the next election (guaranteed, because 1 term oppositions don’t happen in Oz) and then Costello take over; but he retired because he’s a piss-ant, so someone came up with a scheme to make the party want him.
It’s as good a conspiracy theory as any other! Except aliens. Alien conspiracy theories are better. But what alien conspirator would have any interest in as pathetic and useless an organisation as the Liberals?
Laura Tingle has a good item in today’s AFR. She basically says that the Libs have thrown Grech to the wolves. She also points out that he was doing a very good job for the treasury on the Ozcar thing. He a was also doing a very good job as the Lib mole in the treasury , even when Howard and Costello were in charge.
She also advises other potential leakers to cease and desist leaking to the Libretards unless they have a very loose attachment to their jobs.
I fear for Mr Grech.
Huggy
There is someone else. The John Howard government was unbeatable at the game of politics, blame storming and public perception games. Every time the ALP tried to put someone up to match John Howard they were easily out played. Just look at Latham, undone by a handshake and not commenting on an overseas tragedy left uncommented on.
So the ALP changed tack. Rudd was a different player all together. Someone who looks pretty clean and comes across as pretty ethicial. Sometimes so much so he actually forgoes political opportunities to slam the opposition in order to just get things done. (For example, Centrelink being rule bound in giving out benefits post the bushfires. Rudd could have slammed the opposition on this holding it up as an example of what the Coalition had done to Centrelink. Instead he said “fair cop, our responsibility, we’ll fix it ASAP.”)
So looking at the Coalition, accepting the political landscape has changed who could they get to lead? Turnbull? Costello? Abbott? trying the same thing over and over is the definition of insanity.
There is only one person fit to lead. And it would never happen in a million years. A man of principle, unsullied, who’d be able to face Rudd in the chamber and maybe even revive the Coalition.
Ladies and gentlemen I present Petro Georgiou.
Pity it will never happen.
tssk, that’s because the right-wing of the Liberal party – state or Federal, would rather see the ALP sit on the govt. benches than to have a moderate from their own Party lead them in government.
And remember, it took decades of opposition before the ALP was able to cure itself of suicidal factionalism. So don’t expect a quick recovery for the Libs.
apart from which Petrou has already announced his retirement. An ally is Russell Broadbent, but
1)he was only in 2007 re-elected. (Previously he had twice been a one-term Liberal MP).
2)Based in Gippsland.
3)Pleasant fellow.
My guess is that 1), 2) and 3) all tend to rule him out. My guess is they’ll go for Tone. Not saying he’ll be good for them, but he might kick some a**e and get some policy groups started on the hard slog.
“Mr Languid” he is not.
efaristou
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Alex Hawke is the young blood the Liberal Party need for rejuvenation.
In ancient times they strummed a lyre.
Nowadays we finger a liar
Liam @ 74
You say that as if LP rejuvenation would be a good thing.
Interesting to read in there about Donna Powell who just missed out on VP of the young Libs for being in the wrong faction and being on the wrong side of Eric Abetz (the right side by any normal standards). She worked for me for a few years and is a lovely person and a real talent, but clearly has aligned herself with the wrong party given she likes people, has no desire to lay waste to the environment, shows no traces of xenophobia and lacks that born-to-rule quality.
“You say that as if LP rejuvenation would be a good thing.”
No. No, he doesn’t.
This rocks
Madam,
that is a slur upon pet dogs, pet cats, red foxes, and all God’s creatures! It must not stand. I will not stand for it. Neither will I resign. I am a barrister.
No, … -er not “barista”! Good heavens, you’re not making any sense at all.
My day will come. Just wait. You have not seen the last. The PM must resign.
{how’m I going so far???}
Mindy, when I got to the Hockey Dog I lost it at my desk at work. I’m crying.
KGB strikes again
Thanks, Mindy. I’m still laughing! My belly is shaking! The Speaker is brilliant and Sloppy Joe! All of it! Must go back now!
“As Tobias Ziegler observes at Pure Poison, there’s a certain irony in David Penberthy’s observation at The Punch that “Utegate” has been a diversion from issues far more important to the public and to the future of our Commonwealth.”
It is very charitable to see a minor case of “irony” working here. As poor ol’ David has found, with his post, the comments following suggest wide, dark, motives on display. It almost seemed like the regular one eyed Liberal supporter base had not just abandoned him in his hour of need, to change the subject matter, but run out of breath completely. A most unusual occurrence in Newscorp world, indeed.
The following edited comment from Galaca gives some of the commentary flavour….
“And what about the journalists? What about the hypocrisy of News Ltd journos who couldn’t get enough of it when it looked like Rudd was in trouble, but now yawn and protest and supposedly speak for us all with such dross as “The public have had a gutfull of Utegate”. You wish.”
Another correspondent simply wrote “That’s some nice circle work”. I am not convinced they were talking merely about the contents of the video that Penberthy had included.
Well what a turnout. Looks like Turnbull has been saved by the death of Michael Jackson and the loss of that supermarket database.
And they managed to avoid voting on the bill that would have turned into a double disolution.
At the end of round three a battered and bruised Turnbull wins on points overall despite Rudd not having a mark on him.
“At the end of round three a battered and bruised Turnbull wins on points overall despite Rudd not having a mark on him.”
The only way Turnbull could be ahead “on points”, after his last week effort and generally, is if the referee team includes Tony Abbott, Piers Akerman and tssk.
Shorter tssk:
Turnbull hasn’t fallen on his sword *yet*, therefore blah blah blah
Who would replace Turnbull?
I guess that’s the real Howard legacy summed up really. By making himself the Party personally so successfully he’s left them high and dry.
If Rudd and Swan had resigned the ALP has morte than enough talent to survive.
Gillard would make an excellent PM if Rudd were unavailable.
Let me back up my view with stats though.
According to http://www.smh.com.au/national/turnbull-hammered-by-voters-20090628-d1at.html
” The monthly poll shows Mr Turnbull’s personal approval rating slumped 11 percentage points to 32 per cent, while his disapproval rating soared 13 points to 60 per cent.
“Mr Turnbull now has an approval rating similar to that of Brendan Nelson on his way out and a disapproval rating similar to that of Simon Crean on the way out,” said the Nielsen pollster John Stirton.
Support for the Coalition also nosedived. Labor led on a two-party preferred basis by 58 per cent to 42 per cent, up 5 points in a month.
The Coalition’s primary vote slumped six points, to 37 per cent, while Labor’s edged up 2 points, to 46 per cent.
More than half the voters surveyed – 53 per cent – had a less favourable opinion of Mr Turnbull after the OzCar episode.”
There. Drinking from the Piers koolaid…you can clearly see this is a win for the Coalition. After all Turnbull is obviously lulling Rudd into a false sense of security.
No it doesn’t. It looks like Rudd will be able to do Turnbull slowly- as Keating did to Hewson. Turnbull won’t be able to mention a document in Parliament without someone asking, and many wondering, if it is a fake.
Yes, Gregm.
The polls now confirm the public think that it was a shocker of a 12-day stretch, if we start the count at the Midwinter Ball, and end yesterday with a morning TV interview by Mr Turnbull.
So much for the idea being put about last week: “the public isn’t interested in this political shouting match”. So much for Kevin Rudd’s prediction that the Govt would be damaged because some mud would stick.
But in yesterday’s defence by Tony Abbott, I think one point was valid. He claimed that Govt Ministers had mounted a “smear campaign” against Malcolm Turnbull. IMO this is accurate.
It began a day or so before Godwin appeared at the Senate hearing. There was a flurry after the Co$tello retirement announcement. It was done during Question Time. Instance after instance from Mr Turnbull’s colourful business/legal career pre-Parlt. were touted. (I’m not sure whether they got onto his rolling of the sitting Liberal in Wentworth; perhaps that’s being saved for August….)
There was even a reference to “the cat story”. Merciless, heavy punches. Concerted and planned.
It reminded me of the cruelty of Co$tello in full flight [Nick Sherry, anyone?] I also thought some of it seemed as irrelevant as Co$tello’s repeated Parliamentary references to the minutiae of student politics/union politics/communist&trot&maoist party intrigues.
OK, so they were doing to Malcolm as the Libs had done to them, and Godwin should have been baptised Godsend, but…..
Anyone else here more interested in policy than deft work with stilletos?
Update: The polls are in.
Yes, indeedy tssk. And if you add a drop or two of Malvolio’s special bitters, the kingdom will be restored, Malvolio will sitteth at the right hand of the Lord and all will be right with the world.