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.
A dull, drone-like dependability masks the political and policy fire and brimstone within Kevin Rudd. He wanted to make the voter transition from the dull but reliable John Howard to himself seamless. Now, 10 months later, we are stuck with - you guessed it - dull but mostly reliable.
Kevin Rudd’s week-long visit to New York to address the UN General Assembly will mark his second visit to the US this year. Labor has been in office for about 300 days and the new Prime Minister has spent 50 of them overseas. Former prime minister John Howard spent 18 nights overseas in his first year.
Malcolm Turnbull is largely divorced from the Howard era. Coming into parliament only at the 2004 election, Turnbull was not present for the early successes, only the later failures. The intriguing test is where Turnbull takes the party. How will he reinterpret Liberal beliefs? How will he unite the conservative and liberal traditions in the one party?
The income-tax-free club now covers 42.2 per cent of the nation’s 9.754 million families. But middle earners just outside the tax-free zone are caught in a new personal tax pincer, with 134,000 breadwinners being pushed up the scales from 30c to 40c despite Labor claiming it would “increase the take-home pay of all taxpayers”.
Brendan Nelson lost his last hope of remaining leader through two tactical decisions. One was threatening to purge his front bench. In the party meeting, Nelson denounced destabilisers and promised retribution Several Liberals who might have voted for him, even people Nelson did not necessarily have in mind, were now fearful.
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.
Some Liberal MPs this week pointed to Labor’s Crean leadership experience and say they just wanted to “end the agony”. Some who changed their support from the original safe option of Brendan Nelson as leader said they did so at the last minute because they realised a vote in his favour now would only be tested again in a month or two.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has accused Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull of irresponsibility for contradicting the Reserve Bank governor about the financial crisis. Mr Turnbull today appeared to criticise Glenn Stevens’s choice of the words when describing Australian banks’ position in relation to troubled overseas institutions.
The Opposition Leader has decided he cannot place Joe Hockey in the workplace relations role because he held the portfolio during the Howard years. Mr. Turnbull is also likely to dump key Brendan Nelson supporters and reward several ambitious backbenchers who backed him in this week’s leadership ballot with posts in the outer ministry.