Comments on: What Next for Turnbull?

By: whyisitso

whyisitso — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:45:57 +0000

“Turnbull is not of the Party”

Quite. He is a lefty imported into the party for cynical reasons. The Liberals have a history of losing their way with leaders who have no principles. There’s no John Howard around at the moment to lead them out of the wilderness, so they’ll just have to flounder around in the desert for their “forty” years. In the meantiome I’m going to have to revert to voting informal until I have a non-left alternative. Nothing at all in or near sight at the moment.

By: Tel_

Tel_ — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:13:24 +0000

May I just say that although I’m not much of a fan of Turnbull, he was asking the questions that needed to be asked under the circumstances and he never pretended to know the answer to those questions (well, he did pretend, but only for rhetorical effect). If there is some reasonable evidence of government misbehaviour then that is exactly the job of the opposition to drag that up into the light.

It is stupid to suggest that opposition should be 100% sure of these things before bringing them to parliament — that’s not how parliament operates, and the civil service has a “code” to never provide information to opposition where they can avoid it, and the opposition has extremely limited investigative powers. I would much rather have the wishful thinking and somewhat uncoordinated Turnbull style opposition, than the “low profile” waste of space that the Beazley led opposition was during the Howard years.

Governments of recent decades have become rather adept at keeping key pieces of information out of parliament. We have a good system, and these guys are gaming that system. You are paying them to rule your life, you jolly well deserve to know what they are up to.

By: pablo

pablo — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:13:31 +0000

denningesque is right on the Turnbull psychology with this one. From the Rudd perspective I would hesitate to go for the jugular and try to force the Libs to act. I don’t think the public will go for that one…’hitting the man when he’s down..’ won’t appeal to the punters’ sporting cred, particularly when there are far more important issues such as the GFC and climate change to get serious about.
Better to leave it to the Parliamentary Privileges folk. Much more statesman-like.

By: denningesque

denningesque — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:05:43 +0000

The worst of all blunders? Have a look back to some of the silliness of Doc Evatt in the early days of the Menzies government. It is a major blue and probably fatal to his long term prospects. But he won’t resign until forced to do so, much as happened with Evatt. It is not the way of Australian politics. It took years to dynamite Peacock then Howard out of their leadership. Hewson left only when he had no choice. Hawke was ground down and nobody moved against Keating when he was heading for disaster. Leaders don’t let go of the key to the executive toilet without a fight.
Turnbull is not of the Party, or even any political tradition. He looks at being a parliamentarian as another challenge and ambition to be satisfied. Unfortunately the Liberal Party embraces those who are ambitious but essentially an ideology free zone. Exhibit 1 is Brendan Nelson. He is leaving at the next election. When Turnbull leaves the leadership he will be gone at the next election. Onto another challenge. He is not Menzies, content to take years to look at himself and come back as an entirely different leader.
Methinks Turnbull will stagger on to the next election because nobody wants this poisoned chalice. Even Hockey will beg off.