Malcolm Turnbull

Kevin Rudd’s book Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle comes out next week. The Prime Minister is establishing himself as a writer with a diverse repertoire. First it was a mini-thesis on the fall of capitalism, now a children’s book involving his pets gallivanting around The Lodge.

And he speaks a second language – not just any old high school French or Spanish or even Italian, but one of the really hard ones: Mandarin. Fluently.

Rudd’s not alone in having some talents beyond politics. In Australia and around the world there are leaders who are clearly master politicians because of power they wield, but also have other special talents. And we’re not talking parlour tricks like being able to blow milk out your nose or play Wonderwall on the guitar.

Continue reading "What happened to pollies being good at just politics?" »

The turmoil of the opposition leadership spill made Parliament House an eventful place to be for a press photographer. But it has become harder than ever to satisfy the appetite of the news-hungry populace, as the increased bureaucracy is madder than ever.

The feuding within the Liberal Party highlighted the antiquated and ridiculous rules that dictate where photographers and TV cameramen can go and what they can shoot at any given time.

In an attempt to deliver a professional product to our millions of readers and viewers, we were forced to break all the rules, and it has got us into all sorts of trouble.

Continue reading "Shooting Turnbull’s end: how you almost missed it" »

Hardline conservative Christians helped orchestrate the flood of correspondence that convinced Liberal MPs to ditch support for Malcolm Turnbull and the emissions trading scheme.

One site that published repeated calls for direct lobbying of politicians was Catch the Fire Ministries, a church whose pastor earlier this year said the Black Saturday bushfires were divine vengeance for liberal abortion laws.

It has also emerged that Cory Bernardi, one of the Liberal senators who led the revolt against Turnbull, called on supporters in late November to wage an email campaign to persuade his colleagues in the Senate that the public was outraged at the ETS. His email was published and endorsed by a website popular with fringe conspiracy theorists.

Continue reading "The holy war on climate change" »

When Tony Abbott snatched the leadership of the Liberal Party last week some commentators were quick to liken the sharp-tongued Member for Waringah to the former Member for Werriwa Mark Latham.

But with his blistering online attack on his own party and leader this morning Malcolm Turnbull looks to be the one headed for the remote compound with an electric fence.

While a shadow minister, Tony Abbott was never afraid of speaking bluntly in a manner that was at odds with Coalition policy. So as I am a humble backbencher I am sure he won’t complain if I tell a few home truths about the farce that the Coalition’s policy, or lack of policy, on climate change has descended into.

The usually articulate and verbose Mr Turnbull went on to describe Mr Abbott’s claim you can cut emissions without an ETS as “bullshit.” I think he’s blown a gasket.

Continue reading "What next - the Turnbull Diaries?" »

As NSW Labor once again bury and dig up another leader in their pet cemetery of a cabinet to lead its army of walking dead, we see that Malcolm Turnbull has begun a bit of haunting of his own.

Yesterday’s cracking yarn by Annabel Crabb revealing angry emails sent by Malcolm Turnbull to Julie Bishop, accusing the deputy opposition leader of being hypocritical in her support for Tony Abbott, is evidence of the dangers of having an angry Malcolm Turnbull on the backbench. Combined with blogs and newsletters arguing that Abbott’s stand on the ETS is unworkable, one gets the feeling that Malcolm Turnbull could be dropping political cluster bombs from the backbench for a while yet.

So here’s a proposal that some NSW Liberals are seriously beginning to talk about: make Malcolm Turnbull the next Liberal Premier of NSW.

Continue reading "Cut the crap and make Malcolm the NSW Premier" »

Malcolm Turnbull has left no-one in any doubt as to what he thinks about today’s defeat of the ETS with a blog entry on his website saying the Liberals have damaged the national interest - and themselves - by blocking the legislation.

It is a civil piece of writing, and in keeping with the position he doggedly stuck to this past week. But it has caught the attention of his party, which fears that Turnbull is so passionate about this issue that he could position himself as a booming voice of dissent from the backbench, keeeping the Liberals distracted and divided ahead of a poll fought over the ETS.

“Today the Senate rejected, for the second time, the Government’s emissions trading scheme legislation,” his entry began. “This is a very disappointing result, contrary to the national interest and the interest of the Liberal Party.”

Continue reading "Turnbull’s blog entry shows he won’t go quietly" »

The Liberal Party’s 42 to 41 vote to strip the Opposition leadership from Malcolm Turnbull and hand it to Tony Abbott was a split decision in more ways than one.

The Liberal Party is now so badly divided that a distinct possibility exists that a group - possibly led by Malcolm Turnbull - will leave to establish their own party.

A split party is the price that is sometimes paid when ideology prevails over moderate, pragmatic politics - just ask anyone who was in the Labor Party during the 20th century.

Continue reading "Splitsville: could a new party result from Abbott’s purge?" »

The emergence of Tony Abbott as Opposition leader is a major surprise. Many will assume it means a lurch to the right of the political spectrum.

This may be true. Only time will tell.

Clearly, the first impact, the likely defeat of the Government’s emissions trading scheme, looks to be a clear sign of that move.

Continue reading "Abbott vs Rudd, now this is what I call a choice" »

In 2007, members of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal and National Parties tried to convince themselves that the polls were wrong.

Despite months of poor polling, we clung to a belief that we would succeed at the election.

There was a disconnect between the polls and the ‘feeling’ in the electorate, members would proclaim.

Continue reading "Here is what Opposition is all about people" »

In order to help people better understand the last week, an anonymous Liberal front bencher has made available excerpts of their private diary to comedians Matt Kenneally Toby Halligan for The Punch. This time we can reveal who voted “no” in the final leadership ballot.

MONDAY MORNING 30/11/09

Dreamed of Hawaii. Woke up in Canberra. Nightmare.

Still, happy – drama is over. Hockey almost leader.

Have Senate duty. Will be okay, have Dan Brown novel(s).

Continue reading "Secret diary of a Liberal MP Part II: Who voted “no”" »

The leadership of the Liberal Party will be decided today in Canberra. Punch editors will be posting news, commentary, pics and video as they come to hand here throughout the day. Times are AEDT. Refresh this page for updates.

5.29pm: David Speers of Sky News shares his thoughts in a blog post titled “The Abbott experiment”.

Joe Hockey isn’t rushing to the backbench so fast. He’s talking to Tony Abbott about whether he will stay as Shadow Treasurer. If he does, it will be difficult to show any unity on emissions trading.

In many ways this result may be a blessing in disguise for Joe Hockey. He’s still in the leadership mix, should Tony Abbott implode.

More here.

5.12pm: Bob Hawke, always worth quoting. Here’s what he said today, from AAP:

“I couldn’t have written a better script myself if I sat down and thought about it for, you know, months,” Mr Hawke told reporters.

“Seriously, I don’t want to gloat in the misfortunes of the opposition `cause I think it’s important in a democracy to have a reasonable and functioning opposition.

“They were making such a bloody mess of it I hope genuinely, to some extent, they get their act together.”

Asked what kind of leader Mr Abbott would make, Mr Hawke replied in one word: “temporary”.

4.39pm: More international coverage from the Wall Street Journal (Abbott could push Australia to the right) and Reuters (‘Mad monk’ Australia opposition head to fight CO2 laws).

4.38pm: Barnaby Joyce on Tony Abbott: “We’re looking at a person of immense capabilities here and now it’s a case of keeping the show together and give the Australian people a clear alternative to (Prime Minister Kevin) Rudd’s massive new tax.”

4.30 pm: Tony Abbot has told Channel 9 that he can’t guarantee that every senator “will do the right thing” when asked whether senators will cross the floor.

4.27pm: Julie Bishop says on Sky News she voted for Malcolm Turnbull in both leadership votes today.

4.19pm: What the nation is tweeting about this afternoon. From trendsmap.com

2.59pm: International reporting of the Liberal leadership change… Bloomberg reports:

Abbott, a former amateur boxer who trained as a priest, defeated ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive Malcolm Turnbull by 42 votes to 41 in a leadership ballot, party officials said in Canberra today. The contest capped a week of infighting after Turnbull’s support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd emissions- trading plan split the opposition coalition.

And uses this quote:

“The public are absolutely appalled at the way in which the Liberals have conducted themselves,” said Nick Economou, a politics professor at Monash University in Melbourne. “They now have a leader who really polarizes the community. I cannot see how the coalition will win the next federal election.”

More from Bloomberg here.

Also reports from the BBC and the Wall Street Journal and AFP.

2.50pm: The Greens say they expect a vote on the ETS by the end of today in the Senate. “I don’t expect the government is going to filibuster, so I would think we’re heading for some determination later today,” Bob Brown told reporters in Canberra.

2pm: Abbott confirms end to flirting with Julia Gillard

1.54pm: ABC election analyst Anthony Green explains the possible election scenarios here.

1.18pm: New commentary now on The Punch ... David Penberthy on Tony Abbott, Tory Maguire on Julie Bishop, the Stepford deputy, Mark Kenny on implications for Labor, and Kevin Andrews on the role of the opposition.

Plus - we have a present for Tony Abbott: A pair of boardshorts. Worth 3 points in the polls, surely.

Continue reading "Live blog: Liberal leadership showdown in Canberra" »

Joe Hockey is about to make the biggest decision of his life.

It’s a decision which goes to the core of his very being. His reputation for decency. His determination to be remembered not as a clever politician who knew how to get ahead, but a person who entered public life to make a contribution to the greater good.

It’s a decision which also involves one of his best friends – Malcolm Turnbull, who today cast the moral dimensions of the dilemma facing his mate of 20 years as he decides whether to run for the Liberal Party leadership. “Joe and I are very good friends as you know,” Turnbull said. “We talk a lot, we have very similar views on most issues, our families are very close, he is a good man.”

Continue reading "Hockey’s choice is between personal and party loyalty" »

While today the Liberal MPs are faced with a choice over whether or not they will allow the Government’s emissions trading bill through Parliament, they are faced with a more fundamental choice over the ideological direction the party now chooses to take. Given the unpredicatable nature of the last few days you’d have to be pretty brave to write (or right) off Malcolm Turnbull completely, but the leadership now seems to be a two horse race between Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott.

In choosing Tony Abbott as leader the party returns to a true Conservative party of the right making a clear demarcation from the moderate direction of Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership. Following the disastrous fallout from Utegate in August, Punch editor David Penberthy argued that it was Abbott’s conservative conviction politics that might actually be a bonus for Liberal Party as the next leader, pointing out that Australians are more likely to vote for somebody who they know stands for something.

At the time I argued that Joe Hockey was clearly the only choice for the role given that he was a unifying force between moderates and the right, and who’s avuncular and “average Joe” family man persona could be equally popular with the Australian people who aren’t ready to turn once again to Howard era conservatism. Importantly I argued, and still do, that even though Joe Hockey is very unlikely to win the next election for the Liberal Party he could limit damage while Tony Abbott could make the result worse. 

Here and here both pieces are republished debating the pros and cons of Abbott or Hockey becoming the new Liberal leader. What do you think?

We gave Malcolm a lend of the Party, but the members want it back.

This is the clear message I have received from Liberal Party members by way of 7,500 emails (and rising) and hundreds of phone calls – not to mention close encounters of the personal kind.

The claim that the Coalition Party Room agreed to support the Labor Party’s amended C.P.R.S. legislation imposing an E.T.S. Tax is not true. The Party Room rejected it.

Continue reading "Bronnie Bishop: Malcolm, we want our party back now" »

In order to help people better understand the last week, an anonymous Liberal front bencher has made available excerpts of their private diary to comedians Matt Kenneally Toby Halligan.

MONDAY 23/11/09 MORNING

Booked holiday flights to Hawaii for Friday evening.

ETS bill before senate tomorrow. Still don’t understand it.

Air conditioning was playing up. Stood in front of fridge for a while and felt better.

Continue reading "Secret diary extracts of a confused Liberal MP" »

After a week when the Liberals took decisive action to reduce their political footprint Joe Hockey is sitting snugly between ‘Someone Else’ and ‘Don’t Know’ as the preferred Liberal leader.

If politics really is Hollywood for ugly people, then this week’s Essential Report shows Joe is about to slip on the political swimsuit and start strutting his stuff by default.

The polling confirms what we all supected – the nation is over Malcolm Turnbull, it can’t abide Tony Abbott and it doesn’t really know who Julie Bishop or Andrew Robb are. As for Kevin Andrews, like his own party, we didn’t bother to ask. This leaves just three credible options for the Liberals: Don’t Know, Someone Else and Joe Hockey.

Continue reading "The only beauty contest that Joe Hockey will ever win" »

The next 24 hours are critical for the bitterly divided Liberal Party. The Punch’s Tory Maguire is in Canberra and the team will be posting updates here through the day. Times are AEDT. Refresh this page for updates.

7.21pm: If he is elected as leader tomorrow, Abbott will ask for the ETS to be deferred, and if not deferred, rejected. “The party has a clear choice. It can vote for Malcolm and we will support the legislation. It can vote for me and we will reject the legislation. Or they can vote for Joe and we’ll have a conscience vote”.

7.19pm: Tony Abbott says he’s spent most of the day in discussions with Joe, says…

“It now seems pretty clear we could change the leader to Joe and these offensive bills could still go through the parliament. I will be a candidate for the leadership tomorrow.”

7.17pm: Ian “Macca” Macfarlane says he’s in the dark - “they’re not telling me anything”

7pm: Nick Minchin has just released this statement:

Speculation tonight by Laurie Oakes on Channel 9 news that I support the proposition that Labor’s CPRS Bill pass through the Senate upon a change of leadership are inaccurate. I continue to support the proposition that the Bill should be referred to a Senate Inquiry, to report back after the Copenhagen conference.

6.35pm: ABC news reporting the deal to install Hockey as leader includes Liberal Senators being allowed a conscience vote on the ETS, meaning it would pass. But David Speers at Sky says it’s being discussed, no decision yet.

6.10pm: Nine’s Laurie Oakes says there’s mutterings Nick Minchin may agree to pass the ETS tomorrow once Turnbull is gone as leader.

5.52am: Back in the Senate - 70 amendments done, only 140 to go. By the time it’s complete Parliament House could have ocean views.

5.45pm: Now reported Family First Senator Steve Fielding is in Joe Hockey’s office with Mr Hockey, Nick Minchin and Peter Dutton - discussing the Royal Commission? Probably not.

4:59pm: AAP reports key figures from the left and right are meeting to sort things out before tomorrow’s meeting. Meeting in Joe Hockey’s office reportedly includes: Federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane, and MPs Greg Hunt, Christopher Pyne, Andrew Robb, Nick Minchin, Julie Bishop, Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton.

4.49pm: Bronwyn Bishop writes for The Punch: Malcolm, we want the leadership back please.

4.40pm: Audio of Turnbull’s press conference live now, courtesy of Sky News. Listen here.

3.49pm: Reports on Turnbull’s doorstop at The Australian, The Age, and The Daily Telegraph. From Malcolm Farr at the Tele:

Mr Turnbull was careful in how he explained the outcome of his leadership meeting with Mr Hockey this afternoon.

He said: “He (Mr Hockey) said he would support me in the spill movement. He said he would vote against the spill.”

3.46pm: Steve Fielding walked into the media scrum immediately after Turnbull had finished speaking and called for a Royal Commission into climate science. Seriously.

3.37pm: Recap: Turnbull says Hockey has assured him of his support in a vote on a leadership spill in the partyroom tomorrow morning. If the partyroom votes to declare the leadership vacant, then Turnbull says he will stand for re-election. It is still unclear if Hockey will run against Turnbull but he is widely expected to.

A strong line of argument Hockey could use is that with Turnbull’s leadership doomed, it is Hockey’s duty as a committed moderate to run against right-winger Tony Abbott.

3.36pm: From Turnbull:

Joe came to see me for a chat.

We actually had a meeting on the weekend that didn’t make it into the press because neither of us rang up a journalist beforehand.

Joe and I are very good friends.

Continue reading "As it happened: the Liberal Party’s mad Monday" »

A roundup of key coverage from this morning’s newspapers and websites is over the jump.

Continue reading "Reading roundup: Liberal leadership showdown" »

IT is almost two months to the day since Malcolm Turnbull defiantly proclaimed he could not lead a party that failed to act on climate change.

It could well be his epitaph because it looks increasingly likely they will be his famous last words. His war-like comments in a radio interview on October 1 will come back to haunt him tomorrow when a leadership challenge is expected to try to finally resolve the Liberal Party’s internal angst and division over the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Aside from internal manoeuvrings and mutinous rumblings within the party, the Liberals have a bigger problem. They are sending mixed signals to the electorate about where they stand on climate change and this is worse than death by a thousand swords for a party hoping to win Government at the next election.

Continue reading "Confusion reigns online over ETS and the Liberal Party" »

With the Liberal Party’s rolling leadership crisis set to be resolved one way or another on Tuesday, the Sunday talk shows could have been twice their usual length this week but the hours of analysis would never be able to say as much as this photograph in the morning papers.

As The Sunday Telegraph reported, Joe Hockey went to considerable lengths to avoid being placed at John Howard’s Sydney home, circling the suburbs of North Sydney and pausing in his car before going inside. Also in the paper was a Galaxy poll showing Hockey and Turnbull neck-and-neck as preferred Liberal leaders by a considerable margin over Tony Abbott, but it also found widespread public opposition to the immediate passage of the ETS (you can see it here as a PDF).

But from the morning talk shows, two key points. First, the relationship between Hockey and Turnbull is now pivotal. And second, what happens on Tuesday’s remains anyone’s guess.

Continue reading "Libs in crisis: Sunday talk shows round-up" »

THERE is a hilarious moment in the Hitchhikers’s Guide to the Galaxy when it is explained to one of the last remaining humans, Arthur Dent, that things are not what they seemed.

Shattering his life-long assumptions following the Earth’s destruction - that’s intergalactic progress - a higher being explains to the hapless Dent, that all those white mice in labs that humans thought were part of various experiments, were in fact, conducting an experiment on us. Humans were not as wise as they thought and now, their planet had been obliterated to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

I thought of this on two counts in recent days. First, there is the parallel with what Malcolm Turnbull, has been telling his troops: do nothing about climate change and the Earth as we know, will be destroyed.

Continue reading "Libs adrift in a hostile galaxy" »

Australians expect their political leaders and their political parties to take effective action on climate change because it is an important issue for them and their children.

The Opposition has always had significant concerns with the Rudd Government’s CPRS legislation. That is why we fought for changes to the proposed scheme, to improve its design and protect Australian jobs.

As a result of the changes secured by the Opposition, tens of thousands of Australian jobs have been saved, farmers have been protected by permanently excluding agriculture from the scheme, $1.1 billion in direct support to small and medium businesses will be delivered, and the threat of blackouts and interruptions to the electricity supply has been removed.

Continue reading "Climate debate a turning point in Liberal Party history" »

Bizarrely enough I just bumped into Malcolm Turnbull. And despite the chaos unfolding around him, he looked relaxed and happy. Asked if it was all over, he said: “No, far from it.”

The Opposition Leader was lunching at Tabou, a terrific French restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney, honouring a long-standing date with a bunch of senior journalists from The Australian. I was grabbing a quick bite with a mate and bumped into the Opposition Leader at the top of the stairs. He was scathing in his assessment of the Right’s tactics over the CPRS.

“What they have done is like political terrorism. They have basically tried to blow up the party,” he said.

Continue reading "Relaxed and at lunch, Turnbull says he’ll survive" »

The battle for the leadership of the Liberal Party is now looking more like a contest for a high school SRC as Joe Hockey turns to social media to ask people what he should do over the ETS - and by default, whether he should shaft Malcolm Turnbull. He also wrote on Twitter today: “Hey team re The ETS. Give me your views please on the policy and political debate. I really want your feedback.”

Social media tragics will hail this as a ground-breaking moment in participatory democracy. Others - I’d call them “almost everybody”  - will just shake their heads in disbelief that the alternative government of Australia has been reduced to tweeting the punters for help as its most senior members become paralysed by panic, opportunism and expediency.

A quick stocktake of where things are at with the leadership:

Continue reading "Joe’s Facebook folly makes Libs look like bigger Twits" »

The honour of being elected as a member of the Federal Parliament carries with it very serious responsibilities.  Each of us are charged with seeking to do what is right, to listen to the views of our constituents, to represent the political parties that endorsed us, and ultimately determine what is in the nation’s interest. 

My decision to resign from the Shadow Ministry yesterday is one I did not take lightly. I felt compelled to do so because I reached the conclusion that it is not in Australia’s interests to support Labor’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). 

This is a position which was only strengthened by the fact that there was a clear majority in the Coalition Party Room in favour of voting against this legislation, despite what our leader concluded.

Continue reading "Why I quit shadow ministry and won’t back Labor’s ETS" »

THE so-called “Turnbull experiment”, which many Liberals entered into only reluctantly when Brendan Nelson imploded, is over.

The party that briefly departed from the divisive politics of John Howard, now looks to be lurching back to the right. This is a classic sucker move induced by the success of the centrist Kevin Rudd phenomenon.

There, on the right, it will find ideological purity but little or no scope for electoral success. The federal Liberal Party has just adopted a recipe for failure so popular in numerous state-based Liberal oppositions who are similarly unelectable.

Continue reading "Turnbull experiment is over - are the Libs over too?" »

7.32pm: Tomorrow will be another huge day in Canberra, with Malcolm Turnbull clinging frantically to his position and the Government desperate to get the CPRS through the Senate before Kevin Rudd meets with US President Barack Obama early next week. We’ll be continuing our coverage of this extraordinary political story in the morning. For in-depth news coverage tonight got to The Australian.

7.30pm: Government Leader in the House Anthony Albanese says that under an agreement made with Malcolm Turnbull the CPRS will be voted on by 3.45pm tomorrow. There will not be a motion to move a guillotine of the debate tonight.

7.10pm: Malcolm Turnbull is standing firm. He has just told a press conference “this is about the future of our planet and the future of our children, and their children… this is about risk management… saying we’re not going to do anything about climate change is irresponsible.” He said the CPRS had the support of the “overwhelming majority” of the Coalition partyroom. “Most people who doubt the science also know that it makes sense to take out insurance… I believe we must maintain this course of action… I am committed to it, we must be a party committed to action on climate change.”

Continue reading "Live blog: The Malcolm Bligh Turnbull mutiny" »

Update 5.15pm: Tony Abbott has just held a press conference where he said he and Nick Minchin have told Malcolm Turnbull the CPRS Bill should be delayed until next year. “Malcolm was unprepared to reconsider,” Mr Abbott said. He then confirmed he would quit the shadow cabinet. “This is a very difficult decision for me.” He also said: “This isn’t a leadership issue at all, it is a policy issue.” He refused to confirm or deny there have been any discussions about a leadership challenge with his colleagues. “I don’t know what might happen in the next few days.”

Speculation is rife Tony Abbott is considering quitting the front bench in the next 24 hours, and could be preparing to make a tilt at knocking off Malcolm Turnbull from his precarious leadership perch.

What this would achieve for the Liberals, or for voters, is very unclear. While the Coalition generally only thrives under a conservative leader, it’s impossible to see how that would happen under Abbott.

Continue reading "What is he thinking?" »

The Liberals are currently staggering around the corridors in Parliament House like a bomb has gone off. In political terms it kind of has. The past 36 hours has smashed Malcolm Turnbull’s authority, failed to produce a viable alternative candidate for the leadership, transformed manageable differences of opinion into bitter personal hatreds, left the frontbench a mess with three resignations already and possibly more to come, not to mention a looming reshuffle just to add further fire to an already incendiary situation.

Liberal MPs are openly talking about their sadness at the way the whole thing crashed around their ears. They are worried about their seats and had wanted one of two things to happen - to achieve a quiet consensus on a CPRS deal and to quietly pass the legislation, or for the talks with the Rudd Government to fail and to vote against it. Instead they have got open internal warfare.

Their biggest fear is how it will play out with traditional Liberal Party voters who cannot fathom the logic of what the party has done in embracing a lose-lose situation, whereby people who believe in climate change will give full credit to the Government for introducing a CPRS, while people who do not believe in climate change will punish the Opposition for backing it.

Continue reading "Grass roots revolt the biggest fear for battered Libs" »

Malcolm Turnbull has survived to fight another Question Time. At a Liberal Party meeting this afternoon a motion, moved by Wilson Tuckey, to spill the leadership was defeated in a secret ballot 48-35.

This result denied Kevin Andrews the chance to make his own run at the leadership. It does, however, mean that 35 MPs in the Liberal Party room expressed their wish to be given the chance to dump Mr Turnbull. The Opposition Leaders still faces the herculean task of getting some kind of cohesion in his party on the CPRS.

You can see our blow by blow coverage after the jump.

Continue reading "Question Time Live: 25/11/09" »

Last night Malcolm Turnbull announced his party’s support for the ETS bill with the resigned cheerfulness of a man who knows his days are numbered.

He looked more like a defeated leader at the end of a campaign thanking his supporters than someone who had just prevailed over the Opposition old guard.

It was a pyrrhic victory and nothing he said could disguise that fact.

Continue reading "Malcolm Turnbull: ideology’s latest victim" »

Malcolm Turnbull has retained his position as leader of the Liberal Party after winning a secret ballot on a motion to spill the leadership by 48-35. Punch editors will be posting the latest developments, commentary, pictures and video here as they come to hand. Times are AEDT. Refresh this page for updates.

4pm: Question Time over, the Libs limped their way through it the poor sods, they looked like a footy team that had just got thumped in the GF. Read our coverage of the day unfolded below. I will post a new piece later today wrapping up Turnbull’s two days of hell, and his future from here.

1.55pm: Time for Question Time. The Punch will be covering it live here - join in, should be fun.

1.50pm: Battered Libs limping their way towards chamber for QT. One MP just told me this is their equivalent of DLP split. Total and unabiding fury between the two camps. MPs also talking up hockey as best consensus candidate for leadership change in new year.

1.41pm: News round-ups of the events at the partyroom meeting now available at news.com.au and The Australian.

1.33pm: It’s certainly a better result than yesterday on the CPRS - but it won’t give Turnbull any security. Almost half the party still out to get him…

1.31pm: Joe Hockey speaking after the meeting. “Clearly this issue has done us incredible damage and I hope the Australian people forgive us…”. Emphasises the Liberal Party is a progressive party. Says given the mood of the party the 48-35 result was a good result for Turnbull.

1.29pm: It’s understood Joe Hockey was sounded out by the right for leadership on condition he opposed the CPRS. Said he’s not interested in starting his leadership career by selling his soul.

1.28pm: Kevin Andrews says he accepts the result of the ballot, but 35 is a significant number in the party room, which makes a strong point about the position on the CPRS. He says of Turnbull: “of course he has my support, he’s the leader of the party.”

1.23pm: No spill. Motion lost 48-35 in a secret ballot.

1.14pm: Cannot find a single Lib who is taking Kevin Andrews’ candidacy seriously or as a genuine threat. With Abbott not in the mix Turnbull shouldn’t get rolled.

1.13pm: Parliament security, at the request of the Opposition Leader’s office, are preventing journalists from congregating near the party room. Not sure why, as people inside the meeting will text developments to the press gallery anyway.

12.56pm: Samantha Maiden of The Australian writes on Twitter: turnbull has just walked into office with dep COS credlin. looks really upset

Continue reading "Live blog: Liberals in crisis" »

Highlights from this morning’s newspaper coverage of the Liberal leadership turmoil.

The Australian
Lead story: MALCOLM Turnbull last night threatened to quit the Liberal leadership ... Kevin Andrews, who has declared himself a leadership candidate, will today confirm his intention to stand against Mr Turnbull ... It is understood frontbencher Tony Abbott will also stand but Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey reportedly will not. Read it here.
Matthew Franklin: How Turnbull staged his own destruction
Dennis Shanahan: Leader enters the dead zone
Peter van Onselen: Turnbull now leader in name only

Continue reading "Reading roundup: Turnbull’s leadership in turmoil" »

HIS voice hoarse and breaking from arguing his case over 12 hours of solid meetings, a haggard Malcolm Turnbull declared “I’m the leader” six times last night at a defiant but probably futile press conference aimed at asserting his authority over a political party which is split almost exactly in half.

By the end of the press conference he looked like a doomed man, almost resigned to his likely demise as he faces betrayal by members of Shadow Cabinet, abandonment by the National Party, with almost half the party now canvassing a leadership spill as early as this Thursday - or protracted sniping ahead of his execution at a later date.

The press conference started in bullish fashion. Flanked by deputy leader Julie Bishop and chief climate negotiator Ian Macfarlane, Mr Turnbull declared he had won “overwhelming” party support for his deal with Kevin Rudd over the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

Rubbish, rebel MPs were saying to reporters via SMS and in corridor chats, explaining that 40 MPs had spoken against the package and just 33 in favour - and that Mr Turnbull had inflated the numbers by arbitrarily including Shadow Cabinet in its entirety in the yes camp, getting him the paltriest possible majority at 47 to 46.

Continue reading "Last plea of a doomed man" »

UPDATE 8.20pm: Total chaos as meeting ends, set to resume at 8am tomorrow, strong talk that he will be challenged, massive press pack outside Party Room, Turnbull apparently has 41 MPs behind his ETS Plan and 33 against, MPs saying it is not a strong enough mandate to back the ETS, Turnbull has apparently blown up inside meeting, says nothing to press on way out. More to follow.

Update 8.15pm: Sky News reports the back bench vote actually came out 41-33 against the CPRS, but Turnbull declared with the shadow ministers he could get a majority in favour. According to David Speers he made this announcement while some Senators were outside the room. To say they’re unhappy is an understatement.

Update 8pm: Apparently the No vote disputes the party room numbers on the CPRS and are going to move a leadership spill. Kevin Andrews confirms he would put his hand up if the spill gets up.

Update 7.40pm: Malcolm Turnbull says he’s won the support he needs in the Coalition party room. But they’re reconvening at 8pm and there’s rumours of a leadership spill.

Update 5.10 pm: Perhaps not surprisingly Tuckey couldn’t get enough hands up for his motion.

Update 4.50pm: Wilson Tuckey has just moved for a spill of the leadership in the party room. The motion won’t get up without a majority show of hands. But it’s sure to make Malcolm Turnbull’s day just that much worse.

Continue reading "Next two hours could seal Malcolm Turnbull’s fate" »

Update 10:55am: Shadow Cabinet signed off this morning on Malcolm Turnbull’s deal with the Government over the CPRS, and it is now being debated by the Coalition Party Room.

No. But he’s the Right Faction’s stalking horse should Malcolm Turnbull falter in his handling of the CPRS - which in the eyes of the more skeptical and conservative Libs he is already doing. And if there is a blow-up in the Party Room today, Kevin Andrews is expected to run for the leadership.

In what is looming as a chaotic and unpredictable day, the Right Faction is positioning itself to inflict a potentially mortal wound on Turnbull by moving a spill in protest at his excessive concessions over the carbon pollution reduction scheme.

Kevin Andrews is not the Right’s preferred candidate - but he is the one who has volunteered to go over the top on behalf of the party’s conservatives. He told SkyNews ominously yesterday that “At the moment we have a leader but I am a loyal servant of the party and I will do any job that I am asked to do,” Mr Andrews told Sky News.

Continue reading "Is this the next Leader of the Liberal Party?" »

If they weren’t busy washing their hair, watching paint dry or rubbing lard on the cat’s boil, more Australians would have got along to the small soiree in Canberra earlier this month to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the failed republican referendum.

The event was entitled “Ten years on, it’s time to mend the nation’s heart”, taking its cue from Malcolm Turnbull’s pointed referendum night sledge against his eventual boss, Prime Minister John Howard, over his allegedly sinister role in skewering the yes vote.

A small ceremony was held on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra – Canberra being a terrifically appropriate choice as, from all the states and territories, the ACT was on its own in voting yes - where a statement was read urging both sides of politics to revisit the case for constitutional change.

Continue reading "Republican nation bored into apathy by republicans" »

UNLESS Malcolm Turnbull is Harry Houdini, he is about to join the likes of John Hewson as another `almost was’ wealthy businessman who promised much but ultimately could not manage the politics.

Things could hardly have gone worse for him this week. Just when he had the Government under real pressure over its faltering management of the Oceanic Viking crisis, problems on his own side overwhelmed him. Next week looks harder again.

He must be wondering why he left a perfectly successful career in business for this. He may not be wondering for much longer.

Continue reading "Holding our breath to see if Malcolm survives" »

Most of the action took places after Question Time yesterday, but the tension between the Government and Opposition continues to grow. You can see our Question Time coverage after the jump.

Continue reading "Question Time Live: 18/11/09" »

With another boat load of asylum seekers intercepted and reports there are at least 10 Coalition MPs vowing to cross the floor on the ETS there’s plenty happening in Federal Parliament. You can see our Question Time coverage after the jump.

Continue reading "Question Time Live: 17/11/09" »

I am wiping the egg off my face this morning. Last week I happily wrote off Newspoll’s recent findings of a drop in support for Rudd as a blip and then along comes this week’s Essential Report showing there is, indeed, something going on.

The fall we have picked up may not be as spectacular as Newspoll’s but we are beginning to see movement away from Labor, especially among older Australians.

A four-point fall in two party preferred vote is beyond margin for error and could mean one of three things: (i) Newspoll was right all along (albeit a little over-cooked);  (ii) Newspoll was wrong but the world has caught up with their error; or (iii) we have a blip to match Newspoll’s.

Continue reading "I love the taste of egg in the morning" »

The former Democrats Senator Andrew Murray, one of the driving forces behind today’s apology to the “Forgotten” Australians recently told Kevin Rudd that while many apologies had been made by state governments, churches and charities to the children abused and neglected in care in this country “some were better apologies than others.”

There was a pretty strong sense in the Great Hall of Parliament House this morning that this apology was one of the “better” ones, how ever you might define it.

For a start you could hear it. “Sconey”, 40, from South Australia, told The Punch when the SA Government apologised the speakers didn’t work.

Continue reading "What makes a good apology?" »

This week YouTube claimed the scalp of Malcolm Turnbull staffer Thomas Tudehope after he allegedly helped disseminate a Hitler parody video in which Federal MP Alex Hawke is portrayed as an irate Adolf Hitler.

It didn’t take long for the supposedly anonymous Downfall meme to catch the media’s attention, and by then it was only a matter of time before the creative talent behind it was exposed. Not helped in any way by a comprehensive email chain leaked to the media linking Tudehope and another Liberal staffer Charles Perrottet to the short film.

But with revelations that Tudehope had to resign over the issue, maybe it’s time for a little lesson for young staffers, press secretaries and politico wannabes out there who seem to think Web 2.0 is all fun and no responsibility. Sure it’s all a bit of a lark now and then, but when pre-selections, votes and political cred are at stake, there’s nowhere to hide. And seriously, who wants to lose their job in this economic climate?

Continue reading "Five tips to avoid downfall by social media" »

Evidence is now mounting that last week’s Newspoll poll showing a seven point drop in Labor support was a rogue result, with Essential Research’s weekly tracking showing no movement in the two-party preferred vote.

The Essential Report, that has Labor comfortably ahead 59-41, follows on the heels of Monday’s Herald/Nielson poll that was also steady.

Beneath the headline figures there are some intriguing sub-plots, with the public going close to welcoming the increase in interest rates, while continuing to rate the Prime Minister down on his handling of the asylum seeker issue.

Continue reading "It’s a blip – Rudd maintains lead with interest" »

The Punch has now closed a piece it published during the Utegate affair involving Paul Lindwall, a former senior member of Malcom Turnbull’s team.

I also want to apologise to Mr Lindwall for any embarrassment or distress the piece caused him. The background is as follows: on the Monday after Treasury official Godwin Grech gave what is now acknowledged as confected testimony to the Senate hearing on the Utegate affair, there was much speculation as to what the subsequent AFP investigation would unearth.

I was told by several sources that the AFP wanted to establish who in Mr Turnbull’s office had been talking to Godwin Grech, and Mr Lindwall was named as that person.

Continue reading "I was wrong" »

It’s a strange time of year in Canberra.

Millions of bogong moths descend upon Parliament House’s Capital Hill during their annual migration. Accompanying them are hundreds of big black birds against a grey sky: crows, magpies and currawongs flooding Parliament’s many courtyards to feast on the clueless prey lying in around the building.

Walking through this bleak scene I was thankful for the fact that I at least wasn’t a Coalition MP looking out my window at huge crows devouring dying and confused helpless moths – it would’ve all been a bit too close to home.

Continue reading "The Liberal Party is digging up enough dirt for everybody" »

Anyone wondering why Kevin Rudd continues to defy political gravity could do well to consider the latest Essential Report that drills down into the issues of importance to Australian voters.

Like a human pogo stick, Rudd just keeps bouncing back: it doesn’t seem to matter what he’s hit with – global financial meltdown, environmental destruction, even an influx of asylum seekers.

No matter the political issue – and we have tested 13 of them – Rudd has the Opposition covered – even the traditional Liberal strong points of economic management and interest rates can not deliver Turnbull a win.

Continue reading "Our beloved Kevin Rudd is a human pogo stick" »

IF you squinted in a particular way, it was just possible to see last Sunday’s extraordinary meeting of the Coalition joint party-room as a triumph for Malcolm Turnbull.

But the bar was set pretty low. He may have emerged from the four and a half hour marathon armed with the authority to negotiate with the Government on emissions trading, but it was a Clayton’s mandate.

Consider for example its qualified nature - remembering at the same time, the Government’s pre-condition that it would only conduct talks with the Opposition if its negotiators had the authority to deliver its numbers in the parliament. On this score, Mr Turnbull’s authority looks shaky. Theoretically at least, he could get 100 per cent of what he asks for from the Government, and still not be able to say yes without a separate party-room meeting to approve it.

Continue reading "Dejected opposition all at sea over border protection" »

If Malcolm Turnbull achieved nothing else yesterday he may have at least shut Wilson Tuckey up for five minutes.

Yesterday’s five hour joint party room meeting was a victory for Malcolm Turnbull but it was one that doesn’t leave a great deal of time for basking in the afterglow.

Malcolm Turnbull and Ian MacFarlane now have the right to sit down and discuss a set of agreed amendments with Penny Wong and Turnbull’s leadership is safe until at least the end of the year.  And while it’s not much Malcolm Turnbull will take any small mercies at the moment and they’re ones he has fought hard for.

Continue reading "This is the tiniest little victory of them all" »

It’s a somewhat over-worn cliche that in politics disunity is death. Malcolm Turnbull may have emerged from yesterday’s party room with a result, but there’s no denying at the moment the Federal Coalition is far from unified, and voters have started wondering if indeed it might be fatal for the political career of the Opposition Leader.

Two weeks ago The Punch set out to explain exactly why Kevin Rudd was so wildly popular according opinion polls. This weekend we wanted to find out what it was that has driven the Opposition Leader’s polling figures into the mud.

And we found Mr Turnbull’s biggest problem is the perception he’s lost authority over his troops.

Continue reading "Why is this man so unpopular?" »

It’s Monday morning and my phone rings. The voice on the other end of the line booms “You mission should you choose to accept it is to find out what people think of Malcolm Turnbull. Do you accept?”

Ok so sometimes in my head, interning at The Punch is a bit like working for a spy organisation such as the CIA, ASIO, or all too often CONTROL.

I find myself sent on assignments all over the place, dealing with sometime hostile encounters and always gathering information to send back to HQ for analysis.

Continue reading "You need to be a super spy to find a Turnbull supporter" »

Peter Costello has decided to leave his seat of Higgins in Melbourne before the next election meaning that the Liberals will face two by-elections in close succession or even on the same day.

The former Treasurer is yet to give a reason as to why he has left early but he has managed to turn Malcolm Turnbull’s current position from scary to downright horrific. This is like that scene from the latest Saw movie even the actors apparently had to walk out on.

One upside to the departure is that the distraction of Peter Costello will be over with once and for all for Malcolm Turnbull. The downside is this: two men who were the most senior remaining members of the Howard Government, Brendan Nelson and now Peter Costello, have decided to leave Parliament early causing by-elections in the middle of what is already a crisis for Malcolm Turnbull and his party over the ETS.

Continue reading "Things just went from bad to horror movie for Malcolm" »

Can you believe we’re back here again on the Liberal leadership? Joe Hockey said two things almost in the same breath on live radio today - he had been approached about the leadership, but supported Malcolm Turnbull.

Samantha Maiden at The Australian reports the shadow Treasurer said he remained loyal to Turnbull, but admitted he’s had discussions about the leadership. There was this:

I am not going to lie and pretend something hasn’t happened.

Continue reading "L is for Liberal, but clearly not for loyalty" »

The reason the job of federal opposition leader is the toughest gig in politics, is not simply that it’s a hard thankless slog with endless headaches and slim prospects of success.

Or that outside the immediate pre-election period, you are largely irrelevant to voters. Sure, these aspects don’t make the job much fun, but at least they are relatively predictable.

No, the real reason is that to have any chance of success, you need a team focused on winning when in reality, you’re more likely to be heading up an ill-disciplined rabble.

Continue reading "The bitter irony for Turnbull’s leadership" »

I’ve never been one for obsessing about The Australian. They have an editorial slant to the right, but they also have some very high quality journos who I like to read. As a result I buy and read their paper every day and filter out their leanings. I’m sure plenty of others do the same.

Yesterday, their front page (“Rudd loses ground in his homeland state and the bush”) blew up the filter.  It’s one thing to take a news angle on one part of a poll at the expense of a more complex message.  It’s another to ignore what should be, for one side of politics, an enormous, wailing emergency siren with big flashing red lights on top in order to substantiate a headline like that.

In their article, Matthew Franklin and Samantha Maiden claim “public support for Labor has plunged in regional Australia and fallen in Kevin Rudd’s home state of Queensland” as well as “a big jump in support for the Coalition among voters living outside the capital cities.” While no questions on the ETS were in the poll, the ETS was inserted as a possible cause.

Continue reading "The one conclusion from Newspoll: Turnbull is cactus" »

One of the more infuriating moments in sport is when your opponent invites you to “look at the scoreboard’‘.

This smarmy gesture suggests a quick punch to the midriff might be called for but you know how that would end up. In politics, this “look at the scoreboard’’ taunt is delivered daily.

And it too produces some fairly self-destructive responses including infighting, silly public comments, and acts of straight-out treachery.

Continue reading "The score: Brendan Nelson, 1, Malcolm Turnbull, 0" »

Maverick Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey is being branded “disgusting” and “a disgrace” by his own colleagues after using Question Time yesterday to pass around a photograph making fun of Labor MP Belinda Neal over the infidelity of her husband John Della Bosca - with Tuckey even presenting the photograph to the Speaker to see if it could be used as a prop during Question Time. 

In response to the use of photographs as props by Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese - who has taunted the Coalition by showing images of stimulus spending announcements at community meetings - Tuckey arrived at Question Time yesterday with a still image from a Channel Nine news bulletin of Belinda Neal’s electorate office on the NSW Central Coast.

The image focusses on a laundromat next door to Ms Neal’s office with a sign reading “Drop Your Pants Here” - which Tuckey was using as a comical reference to the recent admission of infidelity by Ms Neal’s husband, NSW State Labor MP and former NSW Labor secretary John Della Bosca.   

Continue reading "Libs disgusted with Tuckey over sick Belinda Neal joke" »

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" »

She might be the dux of the year, who’s given additional homework for extra credit, but the Deputy Prime Minister deserves detention this week for disrupting the rest of the class.

By being too smart for her own good, and too big for her own boots, Julia Gillard is the one responsible for Question Time this week descending into what’s been widely regarded as a farce.

And if the Opposition have seemed a little hysterical, it’s because Gillard took the ball and refused to give it back.

Don’t miss Punch TV at 12.30pm today on Sky News. The Punch team will be discussing parliament with Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Continue reading "Julia broke Question Time" »

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" »

One would think that Brisbane car dealer John Grant would have enough of the bloody ute that he lent Kevin Rudd - apparently not, because he’s trying to hock it off to the National Museum.

The Punch can reveal that Grant has been in discussions with the National Museum of Australia to hand the infamous 1996 Mazda ute to the national institution’s permanent collection.

But it seems that the museum is not as keen on the ute being on display as John Grant because the directors don’t really think it should be there.

Continue reading "Museum says Rudd’s ute is out of the question" »

For those who might have been pondering the issue, I can today tell you that Health and Ageing Minister Nicola Roxon has great breasts.

This is not my personal rating. I have taken the advice of an expert. Two Fridays ago mother-of-one Roxon gave a speech and then took questions from an audience in Canberra. A woman rose to compliment Roxon on the number of ministerial tasks she was managing. Slightly embarrassed by the praise she replied, “I have broad shoulders.”

“Yes,’’ continued the voice in the audience, “you do have broad shoulders. And great breasts.”

Continue reading "Women help give Labor breast chance of victory" »

MALCOLM Turnbull is wasting his breath, and opportunities to land some punches in question time, by attacking the Rudd Government’s commitment to maintaining its economic stimulus spending.

Put simply, there’s no political gain to be had by taking Turnbull’s advice - or being seen to be taking his advice - and turning off the stimulus tap.

The point is not about whether maintaining the current proposed level of spending is the right thing to do.

(Join The Punch team here at 2pm for live coverage of Question Time).

Continue reading "No political gain for Turnbull in attacking stimulus" »

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" »

Politics rarely gets as bizarre as when Eric Abetz gets it right – even if it is in admitting he stuffed it up.

Like the Fonz choking on the word ‘wrong,’ most of our leaders just can’t spit out the magic word even when it’s so obviously in their best interest to ‘fess up and apologise.

Abetz’s effort in apologising to the PM met a majority of the requirements in the Definitive Punch Guide to Saying Sorry After Publicly Disgracing Yourself, which I outline below.

Continue reading "Sorry seems to be the hardest word - the art of the apology" »

Call me naïve if you will, but I believe the Prime Minister when he says he doesn’t want a double dissolution election.

“I have not the slightest intention of going to an early poll. I don’t think people like that. I think they want you to serve the term that you’ve been elected for,” he told 3aw’s Neil Mitchell yesterday.

The prospect of using the recent rejection of the ETS legislation in the Senate is being talked up as a double dissolution trigger among us trigger happy media folk but, strange as it might sound, a double dissolution election would be an unnecessary risk for a Government in cruise control.

Continue reading "Why Kevin Rudd doesn’t want a double d" »

Last night the Senate voted in favour of referring Senator Eric Abetz to a special committee over his role in the Utegate affair and things are about to get a bit awkward for all parties involved.

For starters a fellow Liberal Senator George Brandis will be in charge of the inquiry, which is bound to make people wonder whether this is going to be a fair dinkum examination of Abetz’s role in the fake email/Utegate/OzCar affair.

On the other side, Labor Senators on the privileges committee that will be questioning Abetz’s role in the shonky Godwin Grech testimony (specifically his handling of the email and whether it was a manipulation of the Senate committee) will have to be pretty careful about who and what they start demanding from the Liberal Senator - especially if it comes to calling public servants and journalists in front of the committee.

Continue reading "Senator Abetz and his odd date with the star chamber" »

Whether you sit on the left or right side of the political spectrum, it is important the Australian public are aware of the coalition’s current agenda. It is an agenda which puts at risk everything this country has worked hard to achieve, including financial prosperity and security. It is an agenda which is self interested and is not in the best interests of this country.

The job of any opposition is to hold the government of the day to account and to stand up to legislation it believes is not in the best interest of the Australian people.

This is a job the Labor Party did extremely well towards the end of Howard’s reign as Prime Minister. However, since that fateful day on 24 November 2007, the Coalition has done nothing to help this country or hold the government to account.

Continue reading "How the Coalition gave up on the national interest" »

Malcolm Turnbull’s presentation on his plan B for an emissions trading scheme got a “gratifying grunt of approval” from his party room this morning - which is really the best he could have hoped for.

In fact he’s lucky the meeting did not get a lot worse than Wilson Tuckey’s outburst, he was angrily railing against any ETS whatsoever according to Coalition sources.

While on the one hand the Coalition has released the Frontier Economics report as plan B to the Government’s ETS legislation it is failing to commit to the plan as part of its own alternative. The Coalition is just setting itself up for a savaging of the kind it received from the Government in question time today.

Continue reading "Is it an ETS model, idiot?" »

Malcolm Turnbull has survived the Coalition joint party room meeting and now faces the first Question Time in six weeks.

The Government is reportedly going to leave Utegate alone, going after the struggling Opposition Leader on climate change. Join us here live from 2pm for all the fun and games.

See our Question Time coverage after the jump.

Continue reading "Question Time live: 11/08/09" »

Update 1pm: Ashleigh Gillon on Sky just said the MP who got up in party room and spoke in Turnbull’s defence got a standing ovation. That should make Malcolm feel a bit better.

Malcolm Turnbull had a particularly trying 13 or so minutes on the 7.30 Report last night. If you didn’t see it you can watch it here.

It started pretty badly for the Opposition leader and it was all down hill from there.

But it was just a light pre-game sparring session compared to what he’s likely to face in the joint Liberal/National party room meeting today. You could forgive Mr Turnbull for actually looking forward to Question Time, if only because if he makes it there he’s survived the meeting this morning.

Continue reading "7.30 smackdown a warmup bout for Coalition party room" »

Explanations of the mechanics of politics can be an exercise in making people feel stupid.

Politicians, their advisors and political journalists will obfuscate around questions regarding what is actually going on with the passage of a certain bill, the likelihood of it passing or what the hell amendment #22/3 actually means.

The key to understanding the secret to this indecipherable code is that much of the time those speaking have no idea what is going on either. But given that they’re in control of the country (or in journos’ cases tasked with explaining it) they rarely give the honest answer of: “yeah, I’m lost at the moment”.

Continue reading "Dummies guide to the next fortnight of Parliament" »

The most baffling aspect to the entire debate surrounding the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is how so many who agree on a problem can be so divided about the best solution.

With the exception of a few mavericks in the Nationals and the Liberals and one lone Senator from Family First, parliament accepts that the scientific debate is over.

Anthropogenic climate change presents us with the most pressing and complex policy problem humankind has faced. Ever. And personally, I can’t help wondering what planet climate change denialists are living on.

Continue reading "Rudd acting like a used car salesman over ETS" »

I’ve just spent a punishing 30 minutes reading Malcolm Turnbull’s climate change plan and I think I need a bit of a lie down. If you want a reasonably concise explanation of what it means here’s The Australian’s noble effort. The unedited and unfathomable version can be found here at the Liberals’ site.

These are the questions which struck me while reading it: Is Turnbull’s plan a sincere and reasoned attempt at compromise - and if so was Labor wrong to dismiss it out of hand?

Or is it purely an internal measure to silence his critics within the party - and if so should he butt out of the debate and let the government of the day exercise its mandate? We’ve asked some of the players to file, so there’s more to come but for now, over to you.

I WOULDN’T be surprised if Malcolm Turnbull feels like a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.

After revelations that his quickstep to the Utegate affair proved to be a step in the wrong direction, he is now trying to sidestep being voted off the Liberal Party dance floor and salvage his reputation.

As Parliament resumes this week, he will be hoping he can find a new routine to take attention off his previous faux pas and distance himself further from his now-disgraced former dance partner Godwin Grech.

Continue reading "Is this Turnbull’s last dance?" »

As this fight looks almost inevitable within the Liberal Party anyway it seems logical to have it now: Joe Hockey should be the next Liberal leader over Tony Abbott.

The Punch editor David Penberthy makes the case for Tony Abbott taking the leadership below, pointing to his right wing conviction politics as being more of a strength than they are a weakness.

But it ignores the fact that it is possible to have a leader who is comfortable walking the grounds of conservative Australia and still able to sell a strong moderate message - enter Joe Hockey.

Continue reading "Abbott’s not the answer, it’s time to play Hockey" »

Malcolm Turnbull has just meandered his way through a press conference about the Utegate debacle. You can read about it here. It came amid renewed speculation in Liberal ranks over the leadership question, which The Punch adds to with this piece.

WHETHER you’re a rabid left-winger, a moderate liberal or an arch neo-con who thinks Camp X-Ray should not be shut down but turned into a franchise, you would have to concede the fact that the greatest period of unpopularity in the Liberal Party’s modern history has coincided with having two leaders who are anything but traditional conservatives.

The incessant speculation over Malcolm Turnbull – fuelled by the polls, and given a powerful new shot in the arm by the latest Utegate developments – invites serious talk about whether the Libs might now return to a conviction politician.

Continue reading "Mad Monk? It sounds crazy but it just might work…" »

On the eve of the Auditor-General’s report into the Utegate affair, the senior Treasury official at the centre of the scandal has revealed why he fabricated the email. The exclusive interview with Treasury’s OzCar scheme director Godwin Grech in today’s Australian has the potential to inflict new damage on the fragile leadership of Malcolm Turnbull, as it shows Grech believes he was used by the Liberals for political gain.

With today’s A-G’s report set to clear Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan of any wrongdoing over their association with Ipswich car dealer John Grant, the Grech interview will compound Turnbull’s headaches because it goes to suggestions of pressure and manipulation, which Paul Colgan canvasses in the post below over the Opposition Leader’s Australian Story appearance last night.

Speaking from a hospital in Canberra where he is under psychiatric care, Grech tells The Australian he only co-operated with the Opposition over the email because he believed they were set to oppose the OzCar finance bill resulting in 2000 job losses. It’s a claim the Liberals deny, saying they were always going to support the bill, and that it was Grech who pestered them for meetings, not the other way around. But their denials will struggle to be heard above quotes from Grech such as these:

Continue reading "The Godwin Grech interview that could sink Turnbull" »

Australian Story is customarily sympathetic to its subjects. This is natural; they’re its stars. Not with the latest episode on Malcolm Turnbull.

The only problem for Turnbull out of this show is that it doesn’t change anything but underlines, with the mother of all magic markers, the existing public perception that his ruthless drive and ambition will lead him to tread over others in pursuit of his goals.

Bad timing for Malcolm, because tomorrow the Auditor-General will publish a report on whether Kevin Rudd’s office made representations on behalf of Brisbane car dealer John Grant - a friend of Rudd’s - to Treasury and, if so, whether the contact was appropriate. It’s unlikely to contain anything damaging for the Government, and ministers have signalled they intend to try lighting a fire around Turnbull, arguing he has no credibility after calling for the Prime Minister to resign over the matter.

Continue reading "Heat on Turnbull over OzCar" »

What the public and the media want out of politicians are two very different things. The politicians whom journalists recall with misty-eyed affection tend to be those who had a sharp tongue both in public and in private, an uncontrollable ego, and were driven by such reformist zeal that they governed as if in a race against time to implement as much of their agenda as possible, regardless of the repurcussions.

If you ran a quick straw poll of any newsroom in the land, the favourites list would be topped by acid-tongued megalomaniacs such as Paul Keating or Jeff Kennett. It would also feature powderkegs such as Gough Whitlam, Nick Greiner or Don Dunstan who did so much in a short period that their governments fell apart because they had given scant thought to the political consequences of executing such a manic policy agenda.

Kevin Rudd would not make the list. Not even close.

Continue reading "Rudd’s boring, but he’s boring his way into history" »

Everybody wants to save the world in some way. But more often than not the politics of salvation get in the way of achieving this.

That appears to be the curse that has befallen the Federal Government’s attempt to introduce an emissions trading scheme.

While the Government and Opposition engage in a power play over the details of an ETS and their own face-saving attempts, they have left the electorate fumbling to grasp what it will mean for the average punter.

Continue reading "Carbon confusion over political emissions" »

In 21 days, the Senate will vote on the Government’s climate change legislation that will – for the first time ever – turn the corner on rising carbon pollution in Australia.

.

This means Malcolm Turnbull has 21 days to get his party into shape on climate change.

We have seen a diverse parade of positions from the Liberal Party on climate change this week, not to mention the views put forward by their coalition partners in the National Party.

Continue reading "The Coalition don’t know what they’re doing on ETS" »

The Rudd Government, recognising that their Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a lemon, has followed the same strategy as a car manufacturer and rebadged the product under the label of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). 

They have not, however, improved the product nor does their ETS comply with its new label.  The ETS remains a process whereby the Government sells or gifts the right to continue polluting the atmosphere to those industries most notorious for so doing.  Rudd further expects to gain $11bn of Tax Revenue from the process.

He sells this proposal under the delusion that there will be a market based response from those so taxed, which will cause them to reduce their emissions. 

Continue reading "Malcolm, most Libs think you’re wrong on climate" »

Like a used nappy, is it time to toss out Blocker and Liberal Lite?

In another era, Malcolm Turnbull would have been Liberal premier of NSW. He would have been a good one, very possibly exceptional. He would have combined the reforming zeal of the last decent premier, Nick Greiner, with a studied expertise around complex urban issues which successive Labor premiers have so spectacularly failed to grasp.

Anyone who has heard Turnbull speak passionately and with vision about the future of Sydney will understand that Australia’s only global city and the country’s economic engine room demands knowledge and leadership of that quality.

Instead, Malcolm’s in the middle of the federal Liberal party muddle that has contrived to comprehensively stuff up what should have been an orderly transition to Peter Costello.  Turnbull has quickly been found wanting in Canberra, his flaws and foibles stripped bare by Utegate.

Continue reading "Australia needs Turnbull to be elected ... as Premier" »

While Italian politics is unable to go a week without some 18-year-old girl claiming to have had a sixsome with the Prime Minister, Australian politics has more of an unusual fetish for utility vehicles.

Barely a week after things settled down with the utegate scandal we are now confronted by “Truckasaurus 09” or “The battle of competing political propaganda trucks” (I prefer the former).

This is a new model of what was an old Coalition campaign introduced to draw attention to the Keating Government’s foreign debt in 1996.

It was also the same year that the Coalition took control of Government from Labor after ten years in trucking wilderness. 

Continue reading "“Hey, check out the truck”: our political Summernats" »

OK, so that was a pretty lame excuse to run a picture of Tony Danza.

But as the small puff of dust settles over Sunday’s vaguely comical yarn suggesting that a “Two Tonys” ticket - comprising Sydney’s Tony Abbott as leader and Melbourne’s Tony Smith as deputy - is steeling itself to seize control of the Liberal Party, a broader and scarier question remains for Malcolm Turnbull.

Namely that his leadership may now be regarded as so tenuous that, especially over the coming fallow winter months when the jaded MPs among his number have more time on their hands, he may find himself drifting into that vortex of incessant, once-every-three-days leadership speculation, which eventually makes his own job totally impossible.

Continue reading "Third Tony emerges in battle for Liberal leadership" »

I was reading Annabel Crabb’s exquisitely written essay on Malcolm Turnbull this week and was struck by two things.

Firstly, it’s remarkable how much of Turnbull’s personality as described by Crabb was at play in his handling of the so-called Utegate affair. The parallels between Turnbull’s precipitate attack on the Prime Minister and his muscling up to Douglas Meagher QC (the Counsel assisting the Costigan Royal Commission) are telling. I was more provoked, however, by suggestions about what motivates Turnbull to participate in parliamentary politics.

The suspicion, of course, has always been that it’s more about Malcolm himself than about a big policy reform that’s been eating away at him over the years. Not that he’d be the first person to come to politics with Messianic motivations; Bob Hawke had more than a bit of that about him too, but he also had a clearly articulated program of reform he was able to put before the people as icing on the cake of having him as Australia’s PM.

Continue reading "Mal has a dream that one day this nation will rise up…" »

One of the most exciting periods in politics for a long time began on Friday the 19th of June when little-known Treasury official Godwin Grech turned up for a Senate inquiry into the Ozcar affair. His sensational testimony led to him being chased through Parliament House. He was followed into a lift and to his car by a horde of media.

It was the start of a frenzied week in politics, when the news from Parliament House was interesting again, and Question Time became the best show in town. It swung wildly from Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull calling for Kevin Rudd to resign to the Liberal leader being under all the pressure.

The first photo is of Treasury official Godwin Grech under pressure and showing it in the Senate inquiry. When he was giving his evidence there was a crackling in the air – you knew it would be an all-in when he left the room.

I was one of the first into the lift and a bunch of others piled in. Others were much closer to his face, but by reaching up and shoot downwards I was able to capture the swarm of media around him.

Continue reading "Utegate photos: capturing a political crisis on camera" »

There is a national consensus that Malcolm Turnbull had a shocker last week, but dig below the surface and the story is even grimmer.

While a string of opinion polls have chronicled the fall in support for the Opposition leader, Essential Research has conducted detailed character research into the two leaders to find his leadership entering the terminal phase.

In 14 out of 15 categories, we find Kevin Rudd enjoying advantages on the positives and disadvantages on the negatives. And the one category where Turnbull has a better rating - ‘demanding’ - may well be the one that bought him undone last week.

Continue reading "15 Reasons Why Malcolm Turnbull Will Never Be PM" »

Forget Malcolm Turnbull. The biggest casualty of the Utegate debacle might not be the individual but the organisation, with the federal Liberals now looking like the hapless state oppositions in NSW, SA, Victoria and Queensland which dutifully turn up every few years on polling day for some ritualised humiliation.

Turnbull has pulled off an unprecedented and unenviable hat-trick in the polls this morning. He’s copped it in the neck in Newspoll, his approval rating falling an unprecedented 19 per cent, the biggest single drop in Newspoll’s 25-year history, with the party vote dropping three points to give Labor a thumping 56 to 44 lead, two-party preferred. He’s been flogged by Nielsen, his disapproval rocketing up 13 points to a whopping 60 per cent. And he’s been caned by Galaxy, with more than half the voters saying he was at best deceitful over the Utegate affair.

Whether Turnbull is safe or not may no longer be the question. The bigger questions is whether the party itself can survive the horrors of the past seven days.

Continue reading "Liberals teetering on the brink of irrelevance" »

THE final week of Federal Parliament before winter recess proved to be more intriguing than a plot from the popular board game Cluedo.

And comments to online news forums were closely following the action as each new card was drawn in what many thought was a concocted blame game.

The hunt for the culprit in the Utegate case saw each of the suspects come under scrutiny and ticked off one by one by bloggers (and voters) as they assessed the veracity of the key characters.

Continue reading "No winners in cyberspace over Utegate games" »

In the latest explosive turn in the ute-gate saga, comedians Mathew Kenneally and Toby Halligan have received a copy of an e-mail sent to Malcolm Turnbull’s shedding new light on the events.

From: Andrew_Charlton_4Eva@hotmail.com

To: Malcolm.Turnbull@gmail.com

Dear Mr Turnbull,

I’ve been feeling guilty since we spoke at the mid-winter ball, thanks by the way for the friendly advice. They taught me many things at Oxford but the value of not lying wasn’t one of them. 

Watching the debate and coverage of Ute-gate it’s become harder and harder for me to stay silent when I know the truth.

I faked the fake email.

I snuck into Treasury and sent an email from my personal account to Mr Grech’s home email.

It was all part of a plan for you to believe the fake fake email was a real email and be embarrassed when it was revealed to be a fake email.

Continue reading "Explosive twist: deep throat Charlton comes clean" »

Grammar narcs and fans of convoluted construction should do themselves a favour, as Molly would say, and log on to the terrific little blog site http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/.

Proving that every interest, however esoteric or marginal, can find a home online, the site posts images of hand-written signs from small businesses and community notice-boards where rogue quotation marks have dramatically altered the author’s intended meaning.

The consequences are often sinister.

A sign at a ferry wharf in the US reads:  “Parents” do not leave your children unattended at any time on this dock or vessel.

A courtesy note snapped inside a hotel room says: This room was made up especially for you by “The Housekeepers”, who end up sounding less like a couple of nice Mexican ladies and more like something out of a Steven King novel.

Continue reading "How “email” “developed” to engulf Opposition “leader”" »

Following this week’s bizarre events involving fake emails, conspiracies, counter-conspiracies and dead cats I began to ask the question: at what point do we turn into Italy?

After question time today I am of the firm belief we have a long way to go before coming near the Silvio Berlusconi gold standard of political scandal.

The last question time of this crazy sitting threatened to further turn the screws of torture on Malcolm Turnbull with reports that he had seen the fugazi days earlier and was encouraging Godwin Grech to peddle it on the market. 

Then, only half and hour before question time another story emerges that Rudd had accepted $32,000 from John “The Don” Grant for legal fees.

Now we’re talking. This could go anywhere, we can only hope to hookers, drugs and the Mafia.

Question time begins, and Tony “no nose” Abbott asks the question: “So why’d he give you the moolah Kevin?”

Kevin: “Well you see old chap it was money from a fund raising dinner to raise cash for an anti-aircraft noise campaign.”

What kind of lame corruption is that?

Continue reading "Our scandals suck, just ask Silvio Berlusconi" »

The Age is reporting John Grant, the car dealer at the centre of the Utegate affair, was involved in raising $32,000 to cover legal fees for Kevin Rudd. Expect the Opposition to have something to say about it during Question Time.

Today is the last QT for six weeks and both sides will be hoping to land a killer blow, or at least have the final say. Join us here from 2pm.

Continue reading "Question Time live 25/06/09" »

We’re wondering what the odds are that Turnbull rolls over and doesn’t ask one question about utegate today. Find out here and join in the live commentary from 2pm.

Continue reading "Question Time live 24/06/09" »

THE biggest casualty in the Utegate fiasco has not been Malcolm Turnbull or Kevin Rudd or Wayne Swan or the oddly-named Godwin Grech, whose unusual handle meant he was almost pre-ordained to wind up as a bit player in some low-rent antipodean rehash of a John Grisham thriller.

The biggest casualty has been the taxpaying, voting public, which has watched the nation’s political leadership descend into an orgy of ludicrous name-calling, one-upmanship and abuse.

[Note: There’s some proper ute-related action in this YouTube vid.]

The allegations at the centre of the Utegate affair were deeply serious. As such, it’s a bit rich to declare boldly that any discussion of the affair was, of itself, a waste of time. It wasn’t a waste of time at all.

Continue reading "Memo MPs: the public has had a gutful of Utegate" »

Update 10.55pm: On Lateline tonight Joe Hockey did his best to turn the issue back onto Wayne Swan and the media, but confused things further when he refused to acknowledge the smoking gun email was a fake. When Tony Jones asked him if it was fabricated, Hockey said: “I don’t know, I honestly don’t know.” He also said: “We have no greater insight into the source of the alleged email than anyone else.”
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As if Malcolm Turnbull wasn’t copping it enough from across the Chamber on his major Ute-gate fumblings, tonight one of his own picked up the ball and handed it to the other side.

The ABC’s Chris Uhlmann reported the Australian Federal Police intended to question public servant Godwin Grech over a string of leaks from the Treasury Department, other than the now infamous fake email allegedly found on his home computer.

According to Uhlmann, more than one Liberal told him they believed Grech had been supplying information to the Coalition, and Turnbull in particular “off-line” since the time of the Howard Government.

One of them said to the ABC political editor: “He (Grech) has been sympathetic to us for some time.”

As the revelations about Mr Grech continue at such a rapid pace, and coming from inside the Coalition no less, Turnbull’s judgement, and position, is looking more and more fragile.

Continue reading "Is Turnbull going “off-line”?" »

As Federal Parliament starts to resemble an X-Files episode, the latest mad theory is that Peter Costello is being encouraged to rethink his eight-day-old decision to leave politics.

There are even byzantine claims that the sham email found by the AFP yesterday at treasury official Godwin Grech’s house - which has today been pelted with eggs - was the political equivalent of an exploding cigar aimed at destroying Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.

The theory has been given extra legs with revelations on The Punch yesterday that the AFP want to have a quiet word to former Costello staffer Paul Lindwall, who until recently was working as Mr Turnbull’s economics advisor, to see what role if any he had in the email affair. There are no suggestions of any wrongdoing on his part but he is a confidante of Mr Grech and the coppers are keen to rule him in or out of the equation.

It’s anything goes stuff in Canberra right now. The wildly speculative Costello talk does indicate one thing - serious Liberal disquiet over Malcolm Turnbull’s judgment on Utegate, and his ability to bounce back from a shocking 24 hours.

Should Peter Costello make a comeback?

The Punch will again provide live coverage of the Question Time mayhem from 2pm.