Brendan Nelson

They both attended universities in Adelaide, were members of the ALP, and both wanted desperately to become prime minister of Australia. One of them actually did it. The other, well, even to say he came close would be generous.

They are Julia Gillard and Brendan Nelson. There they were yesterday. Gillard, the all-conquering but nonetheless skin-of-her-teeth winner of the 2010 election campaign which had made her Australia’s first elected female prime minister (she already had the other record of first female PM sewn up). And Nelson - a distant echo from the recent past. A man who rather too frequently even for his irrepressible smile, had acquired the unfortunate prefix ``hapless’’ during his trevails as Liberal leader.

History shows, as we all know, that they ended up on different sides of the political fence and pursued markedly different trajectories to their current positions. Yet as fate would have it, yesterday, this unlikely pair with way more differences than similarities (despite the above) found themselves on the same team.

Continue reading "The odd couple: PM Julia meets Ambassador Brendan" »

The appointment of Brendan Nelson as Australia’s ambassador to NATO and the EU is good news for him and good news for Kevin Rudd, but it is an embarrassment for Malcolm Turnbull.

While Nelson maintains that there was no offer made prior decision to leave Parliament – the deal was apparently struck over a cup of tea after Nelson decided to leave Parliament with the Prime Minister and only finalised last week – it does cast his decision to leave Parliament early in an entirely new light.

In choosing to leave Parliament early Brendan Nelson has caused a headache for Malcolm Turnbull in having to hold a by-election for his seat of Bradfield, has dropped several mischievous bombs on coalition policy on ETS and is now going to work for the Government that only one year ago he was the leading the charge against.

Continue reading "Nelson just dropped the bomb on Malcolm" »

Yesterday it was all tears for Brendan Nelson. On the ABC’s 7.30 Report the former Liberal leader was showing Chris Uhlmann a portrait of himself which had a bike in the background and a white space in the corner. The white space, Nelson explained in a somewhat melancholy tone, was bit of the story left to be written.

Somehow he managed not to blurt out: “And I can tell you now - I’M OFF TO EUROPE, BABY!”, and follow it up with a bump-and-grind celebratory dance. The white space, he knew, could include a European flag or a landscape of the plush Australian embassy in Brussels. With the ink still drying on the Hansard of his final emotional speech to Parliament, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced this morning Nelson would be Australia’s ambassador to the European Union and NATO.

To be spectacularly catapulted into one of the juciest of plum jobs in the Australian diplomatic service, you have to ask whether Nelson now deserves recognition as one of the canniest politicians in the country.

Continue reading "Is Nelson one of Australia’s most cunning politicians?" »

UPDATED 6:20 PM Following valedictory speech:

A dignified and teary eyed Brendan Nelson bid farewell to Parliament today, but as it’s also the anniversary of the end of his leaderhsip his ghost will be determined to haunt Malcolm Turnbull for quite a while yet.

Like Jacob Marley to Ebenezer Scrooge, tonight the ghost of Brendan Nelson will wake Malcolm Turnbull rustling pages of a complex ETS policy that he has been tasked with finding appropriate amendments on for eternity.

At the end of the apparition Nelson tosses the bundles to petrified Turnbull and tells him in a spooky whisper “of course you could do better couldn’t you?” – cue a screaming Turnbull who wakes up with a pile of ETS legislation at the end of his bed.

Continue reading "The ghost of Brendan Nelson will haunt Turnbull" »

The man who never voted Liberal in his life has now done the dirty on the man who never tried to join Labor in his life.

Before considering the impact which Brendan Nelson’s sudden and petulant departure from politics will have on Malcolm Turnbull’s flimsy leadership, it’s worth noting its cost to you, the taxpayers.

By refusing to serve out the (very short) remainder of this parliamentary term, Brendan Nelson has forced the public to underwrite the significant expense of a completely unnecessary by-election.

Continue reading "Ratting on his leader at expense of taxpayers" »

Update 4.25pm: Brendan Nelson has told Sky News’s PM Agenda: “It has become increasingly clear to me that Bradfield needs an energetic new advocate and representative sooner rather than later.” He would not elaborate on his own plans for the future.

At 2pm Brendan Nelson will confirm he has not just left Malcolm Turnbull with an unwanted by-election, he has also potentially left the NSW Liberal Party with a ding dong battle it probably doesn’t need.

The list of potential candidates for pre-selection for the safe seat of Bradfield that Nelson is about to vacate is long, and each of the blokes being touted as likely suspects seems to have a different support base behind him.

Here’s a rudimentary form guide for the Bradfield Stakes. I suggest any punters hedge their bets.

Continue reading "Roll up, roll up, for the three-ring Bradfield circus" »