Malcolm Turnbull has always known what he wants, and why. He eased into the leader’s chair on Tuesday with an authority that immediately put the Government on notice that things were now going to be very, very different for it. On Turnbull’s team things will be very, very different, too. And not just because he’s leader.
Barnaby Joyce, the maverick elected leader of the Nationals in the upper house this week, says he is unable to provide Mr Turnbull with a commitment to hold the Coalition line on all issues. “At times there will be issues that there will, possibly, be a difference on, so on this occasion I humbly decline,” Senator Joyce said today.
Senator Joyce, who has crossed the floor to vote against the Coalition more than 20 times since he entered the Senate in 2005, said his new position as the Nationals’ Senate leader would not alter his ways. “I am who I am by the grace of God, and I’m not going to change,” he said.
West Australian premier-elect Colin Barnett has today unveiled a 17-member cabinet featuring three Nationals MPs and an independent, Liz Constable. The Liberals formed a minority government this week after gaining the support of the Nationals in the state’s hung parliament.
John Williams, a former truck driver, shearer, farmer and small business owner who only took his place in the Senate on July 1, said he had seen many people living on employment benefits who were “determined not to work”.
The vote for the leadership was held among Senator Scullion and the four Nationals Senators. The nine lower house MPs did not vote. Federal Nationals leader Warren Truss was informed of the planned change only last night. It was unclear today whether he supported the move.
Colin Barnett’s administration is barely ready for government. Whle the front bench will include some talented performers, for the most part the Liberal Party has spent the past 3 1/2 years as a rabble. However the soon-to-be-minted premier is a substantial figure and will now carry the all-important gravitas of incumbency.
Labor’s hold on every government in Australia ended when state Nationals leader Brendon Grylls told a packed media conference that his party would form an alliance with the Liberals, their traditional political partners, to form a minority government. Until last week’s election, no Liberal leader had won a state poll since 1997.
The surreal is everywhere. Witness Alan Carpenter, failed Premier from the rivers of gold state Western Australian telling the ABC’s The 7.30 Report on Monday that he wants to start “a completely new era in Western Australian governance” by teaming up with the Nationals. No, it wasn’t Clarke and Dawe. Don’t check your sets, this is supposed to be serious.
The problem for the voters of Lyne is that the high profile of newly elected independent MP Rob Oakeshott will not necessarily translate into real political achievement. Not unless the government of the day becomes dependent on one or more independents to sustain its majority in the House of Representatives.