Analysis
Posted
This time of the year is often referred to as the
killing season, when politicians connive and scheme to overthrow their
leaders to the bewilderment of ordinary voters.
The killing season came prematurely this year, but the atmosphere inside Parliament House is just as febrile. The sense of anarchy and chaos is real in Canberra as the Morrison Government goes to war with itself — unable to put out political fires burning out of control and lurching from one crisis to another.
The latest unedifying fight over whether to save outspoken conservative Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly is a proxy war for a bigger ideological and personality power tussle inside the Liberal Party.
It is extraordinary that a backbencher who most Australians couldn't identify has become the latest symbol of disunity.The Prime Minister's intervention to guarantee NSW MPs automatic preselection is a short-term political fix with far reaching consequences.
The government has made the political calculation that it cannot risk another defection to the crossbench. But in an attempt to prevent further chaos in the Parliament after the shock resignation of Julia Banks, a bitter war has spilled over into the public domain which sends only one message to voters: the government only talks about itself.
Turnbull says he's not a 'miserable ghost'
The intervention of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has shocked even his supporters who say he has "crossed the line" and now risks not only further hurting the struggling government but damaging his own legacy.MPs who know Mr Turnbull well have correctly predicted in private he won't go quietly.
The zen Mr Turnbull who fronted the ABC's Q&A program is deeply wounded and demands accountability from those who he says tore down his government. Again this morning he named those he says did the damage — Peter Dutton, Mathias Cormann.
He won't let the party, or voters forget their names.Even moderate Liberals now fear that by contacting state executive members urging them to torpedo a plan to prevent Mr Kelly from losing preselection, the former PM is prepared to be an active player in politics.
Mr Turnbull insists he is not a "miserable ghost" like he called Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott who hung around as MPs, but as he told my colleague Fran Kelly, he will not be a "Trappist monk" and take a vow of silence.
Man saved, while two women dumped
So the Morrison Government is now on notice. Their path to a May poll will not be walked without Mr Turnbull reminding the electorate that the party is unresolved and undisciplined.The NSW State Executive will now override the usual preselection process and endorse all sitting members after moderate members essentially allowed it to go through.
This means Mr Kelly will not face a challenge. It is an extraordinary turn of events when a party that knows it has a problem with the number of women in its ranks intervenes to save a bloke, while women MPs like Jane Prentice and Ann Sudmalis are not afforded the same intervention to stay on in Parliament when faced with preselection challenges.
The former PM may have lost this latest battle but his colleagues say the ghosts of prime ministers past — both inside and outside the Parliament — loom large, and this latest fight may signal that there is more to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment